Blind Horizon (2003)

Simply Perfect

Just what I expected

A Masterpiece!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The actors all did a great job. The photography was excellent. I enjoyed the movie up to the end, but then I was disappointed. It slowly gives more information so that you can figure out what is going on. Perhaps the ending is a bit predictable, but what bothered me is that in the end there are still too many unanswered questions. Based on other reviews I have read, one apparently has to have seen several other similar movies to really "get it". If "what really happened" is what others saw, okay. That was one of my possible interpretations at the end. But to get there I had to make a lot of assumptions about what various scenes "really meant". In this sort of complex thriller, I would like to come away feeling that it all became clear in the end.

I don't think I would have enjoyed this film as much if I hadn't been sick after 2 days of hard work with my performance troupe (long story!).I love Amy Smart & Neve Campbell. I once loved Val Kilmer (until I heard his band), but as an actor - I definitely respect him. He seems to have an addiction to these types of movies (De Ja Vu, Conspiracy, etc. - aka, Wannabe Psychological Thrillers). He should stop trying to be Bruce Willis and stick to character acting.Pros: Great scoring. Some good artistic shots of cigarette smoke. Cons: The storyline was very easy to predict. Camera angles & pans can be a little cheesy.

Very well made mystery-thriller. I had never heard of Michael Hausmann before, and believed the movie was directed by Tony Scott, because it resembles in pace and editing with 'Man on Fire' and/or 'Domino'. The overall atmosphere is dark, and Val Kilmer succeeds in portraying a man caught in a maze, on the verge of right and wrong and gradually finding out what is going on with him and the plot to assassinate the president, without falling on either side. As Frank's memory gradually returns, it reveals piece by piece, the plot to assassinate the president in a small town in the middle of nowhere, doesn't emphasize on mind-games in order to surprise the audience with a surprising twist (this I consider a plus, and a rarity lately), but instead keeps up the fast paced action to the very end. Despite his middle-aged rugged looks, Val Kilmer hasn't lost his charisma. Sam Sheppard is in top form as is Neve Campbell and Giancarlo Esposito, but the one that really surprised me was Amy Smart.

Well, I missed the first part of the movie and maybe that accounts for why I didn't understand the details of the plot. The general outline is clear enough. Val Kilmer is involved in a plot to assassinate the president and for some reason is shot by the plotters to get him out of the way. Maybe he had doubts about the legality of such a plan.But its detailed explanation, if there was any, escaped me. I could usually tell the bad guys from the good guys, but not always. Things happen that seem to point nowhere and add nothing to the plot. When Kilmer returns to his hotel room for the last time, why is it loaded up with guns of all kinds? The performances aren't bad and the script, as it appears on the page or tumbles out of the actors, is okay but it is so elliptical as to elude comprehension. The nanosecond-long flashbacks -- sometimes in black and white, sometimes not -- are too fragmentary to be of much help. Kilmer is more uncertain and stutters more than usual. Neve Campbell looks good and can dance. Amy Smart is nacreously blond, probably the hottest girl in her high school, stunningly beautiful along flamboyantly Aryan lines, whom all the boys lusted after and wanted to pinch and bite. (The girls on the other hand wouldn't have minded watching her fall head first into a shredder.)The locations are pretty well done. Las Vegas, New Mexico, looks dustier and seedier than it actually is. Still -- here are Kilmer and the mysterious Campbell as his supposed fiancée. They gradually seem to fall for one another and get it on together. When she unexpectedly has her head blown off, Kilmer glances at the body for a moment then eases out the door and Campbell is immediately forgotten.Maybe you should make sure you see the first 15 minutes or so. Then, as Charlie Chan promised, all will be explained.