4Closed (2013)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Just perfect...

How sad is this?

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Oscar winner Marlee Matlin is one of my favorite actresses.She was definitely worthy and deserving of her Academy Award for Best Actress from the 1986 movie Children Of The Lesser God.Too bad that I rarely see of her movies these days.That is why I was fortunate to see her once again when I was tuning in at the Lifetime channel and see her in Foreclosed,also known as 4Closed.Jamie Kennedy,James Denton,Paul Sorvino-stars with Marlee in it.The story of the movie directed by Nick Lyon is about a family who is currently shopping for a new and cheap house and decided to buy on a foreclosed home.Unfortunately,the former owner would not take "no" for an answer and would not want to let go of his previous house.He keeps close to the new owners by life close by.When he could no longer bear not living in it,the former owner apparently happens to be a psychopath and decides to kill each member of the family.He does that through manipulation by setting each one of them with each other.And just like any typical movie from Lifetime,the family eventually finds out and brings the previous owner into justice as always.No question that we have a common storyline here from Lifetime.The only difference is this time the villain could not let go of his former house instead of having someone who could not let go of someone he/she is involved with in an illicit and adulterous affair.But in spite of it,it was nice at least to see the beauteous and talented Marlee Matlin in another fine performance.Added to that,the suspense and thrilling scenes were fair enough for entertainment.

It was refreshing to have a movie from The Asylum that was an original movie, and not just a lower budgeted version of a forthcoming blockbuster - as they tend to do.I will admit when I saw it said The Asylum on the screen as the first thing, I was about to already give up on the movie before it had even started. But I decided to let it run anyway, and good thing that I did, because "4Closed" turned out to actually be rather enjoyable.The story is about a family that makes a purchased on a foreclosed house from the bank that seems too good to be true. Upon the day of their great move, it turns out that the former owner of the house is still living there and refuse to give up on his home. With the police on their side, the family have the guy evicted and they can move into their new dream house. But the former owner is going to let his property find its way to other hands without a fight.The movie stated that it was based on true events, of that I am not sure just how much was based on the story or how accurate it was, because I am not familiar with a story such as this having happened for real.The Asylum had upped their game and brought a good ensemble of acting talents to the movie; Marlee Matlin and James Denton did have good chemistry together. It was a shame that Paul Sorvino didn't have a bigger role than he had. I was somewhat skeptic about Jamie Kennedy in the role of the crazed home owner, but he actually pulled it off quite nicely, and this is a good step away from the usual comedy stuff that he has to his name.There is a good pace to the storyline and the movie does keep building up tension. So thumbs up to director Nick Lyon for this."4Closed" is a good movie that is entertaining and does have an interesting story. Definitely a bright moment for The Asylum here.

*** NO SPOILERS ***The idea behind the whole movie is great: someone gets evicted from their home, because it was foreclosed by the bank. A great setup that appealed to me, so I decided to watch it.You know, when I watch a thriller, I want the actors to act like a normal person would. That makes the movie believable, and contributes to the entire story line. What I don't like, is certain events that move the story line into a particular direction, but are on completely unrealistic behavior. This movie is literally packed with those. There are more than a dozen of these scenes that will make you stand up and shout: "Who does that!".Some examples*** SPOILERS ***The girl is meeting the weird Forest Hayes in public, and he's touching her face and hair. She is not creeped out, and doesn't mention it to anyone. "Just another day of the weird guy touching and threatening my family lol".Someone has made 10k+ fake transactions from your bank account. Better not inform the bank, money doesn't matter.The police, looking for Forest Hayes in regard of a murder case, yet take the husband under arrest for a bar fight, but Forest is not a priority.Everybody enters the house one by one, notice a BOMB on the kitchen table, and don't call the cops. "cause you know whatever, bombs yolo"The mom just zapped Forest Hayes, taking control of the situation, as he is half passed out on the floor. Instead of tying him up or zapping him some more, they leave him alone and start looking for an exit, so he can recover and blow up the house. Because the guy LOVES his house so much that he wants it back to BLOW IT UP.

I decided to watch the film after seeing the trailer and seeing that it starred 2 famous actors that I had seen and liked in TV shows (James Denton as Mike in Desperate Housewives, and Marlee Matlin as Melody in Switch at Birth).Although initially the storyline is slightly more original (a family buy a house sold as a bank foreclosure - but the previous tenant refuses to let it go) the suspense lead up and progression of the storyline was far too predictable. Also I felt like the acting by the other actors was pretty sub-par, but this might have been a bad script. Either way, I was cringing throughout. This film was an easy watch, and the storyline was quite original, but had no strength and nothing to keep me gripped. I would not bother to watch again.