Necessary Evil (2008)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I'm not sure why Lance Henriksen or Danny Trejo even bothered with being seen in this. They must've been desperate because this movie was just plain stupid. I thought this was so bad, that I didn't even waste any more of my time to see it through to the end and what I did see made little to no sense at all.Starts off with a team of soldiers or mercenaries complete with a female prisoner in tow, and they come across a stone obelisk which turns out to encase some evil being or presence and when they get too close it starts to scream and wail and somehow possesses one of them. This possessed soldier teams up with a doctor and they develop a "demonic drug" called Reficul to test on people. A poor excuse for a detective and some reporter try and unravel what's going on and of course no one wants to listen to an almost washed up cop and flaky reporter.I couldn't under any circumstances sit through the entire movie as I found myself just getting agitated with how stupid it was. This flick struck out entirely with bad acting, bad effects and bad story. At various points Henriksen's voice-overs just became utterly annoying and I'm guessing that that was some kind of pathetic homage to Harrison Ford's voice-over in the original Bladerunner.In any case, this is garbage and not even watchable. Even if this were to somehow make it onto TV late one night, do yourselves a favour and get some nightmare free sleep.

Having re-watched this movie just recently, I thought I should add a review. I am not a film critic, by any means, I just know what I like. And I like this. Lance Henriksen is always good. This role was suited for him in every way and I can't wait to see where they take this in the future. The idea of how much pharmaceuticals play in our lives makes for a good story. The movie paced good enough to keep me interested throughout. Timing was perfect. The actors did a good job of really bringing the scrip to life, and Lance Henriksen's narration, gave the movie a nice creepiness that played well with the theme. I look forward to a sequel with Lance Henriksen reprising the role and Peter Eaton at the helm.

I viewed "Necessary Evil" the other day and I must say, I rather enjoyed the experience. Smart, unpredictable, and multi-layered, I saw it as a statement about the ever-growing, ubiquitous presence of pharmaceuticals in our daily lives, couched inside a creepy thriller.The film unfolds through multiple viewpoints and weaves a tale of corruption and conspiracy with supernatural roots. As usual, Lance Henriksen delivers a strong performance. The film certainly has its share of flaws. But all in all, I recommend it.

I can only assume the two positive reviews were written by someone involved in the production of this turkey. Here's the plot. We start with a group of mercenaries in "Babylon" 16 years ago, sent to find an unknown artifact, and for some reason, they have a belly dancer with them. I can't think of any explanation for the Belly Dancer other than that's what the producer thinks lives in the Middle East. Well, the monster gets loose, and infects the lead mercenary, imbuing him with the Force. Or something. We then have Lance Henricksen, consigned to Direct to DVD Perdition for sins against good project selection, as a mad scientist who runs an insane asylum where they test drugs on the patients, and they are working on a new drug called "Reficul", which is "Lucifer" spelled backwards. Sign of a bad writer... this is their idea of "clever". We get introduced to some more characters, seemingly unrelated to each other, including a hard-drinking cop and a paranoid journalism student who is pregnant. The only truly evil thing that follows is the simply horrible dialog written for the characters. Basically, you couldn't figure out the plot with a Ouija board and a magic 8-Ball, but I halfway expect that's how they wrote it. Memo to Mr. Henricksen. You used to be a good actor. Now your name on a DVD box is becoming like a skull and crossbones on a bottle.