Playback (2012)

Playback is one of those movies that should have made us say "Christian Slater's in this, it's going to suck." That's not a rip on Christian Slater; on the contrary, we like him quite a bit. The guy is Kuffs for pete's sake. He's Clarence Worley. He's Happy Harry Hard-on!

The fact is though, that since the late 90's, he hasn't starred in that many great movies. He's kinda gone down the same road as Ray Liotta or Cuba Gooding Jr... they all had a good career going, and then quietly drifted off into B-Movie obscurity. Oh, Wesley Snipes too. What the hell ever happened to that guy?

Anywho, Playback is the story of a creepy rube who knocks up his sister, kills his family, and uses a video camera to transfer his evil soul into some tapes so that he can pass his evilness on to his blood heir, at some point years down the road. Ok, so far, not so bad.

I am so in you now.jpeg

Years down the road, another creepy rube finds said tape and becomes possessed, dragging a group of High School kids into a web of murder and body-jumping possession, which means of course, blood and death for all. You know one of the Teens is the killer's baby all grown up, right? Which one though? Which one...

"Not me!"

This movie is a jumbled mess that never quite finds its footing, or a proper tone. The High School kids in this movie are all played by actors in their mid to late 20s, one of them in their 30s, and it just felt a bit off. Could they not have made them College kids at least? As for Christian Slater, the biggest name in the movie, he's relegated to a small role as a Pedophile Cop who pays the creepy kid of the town to get him spy-cam tapes of local Teens in various states of undress... and then he rubs one out to them. That was the entire point of his character, and it was a total waste.

Christian, you creeper! Can't you just watch normal porn like everyone else does?

There are twists and turns to be found here as well, but none that you won't see coming from miles away (mainly because they've been done before, over and over.) Cliche' and obligatory twists can be tolerated if the movie surrounding them is engaging and entertaining. Aside from a few kill scenes, Playback was neither. Playback had a good premise, just a sloppy execution and total lack of atmosphere.

There's really no way for us to recommend this movie to anyone. It's not completely abysmal, but it's far enough removed from good that it's just best skipped altogether. Still for some, the gore and hot chicks may be enough for them to love this movie. Had it been a bit less messy, we might have loved it too.

D

At least the chicks were hot. Thank you Alessandra Torresani and Ambyr Childers. Thank you indeed.