Review: The Factory (2012)

(aka Let's Never Release This Movie, Ever)
Release Date: Available on BD/DVD December 12th (Australia), January 2013 (Sweden)
Country:  USA, Australia.
Written by: Morgan O'Neill and Paul Leyden. 
Directed by: Morgan O'Neill.
Starring: John Cusack, Jennifer Carpenter, Dallas Roberts, Mae Whitman and Sonia Walger.

Shot in 2008, and shelved indefinitely thereafter, The Factory is one movie that seemed like it would never see an actual release date.

Fast forward 4 years, and the John Cusack Cop-Thriller looks to finally be seeing the light of day, though it will only be on BD/DVD, and only in released in a few countries.

For the life of me, I will never fully understand film distribution, and why it seems to be such a complicated mess.

At least it's being released. That's something I suppose.

John Cusack plays Mike Fletcher, a hard-boiled Detective on the hunt for a local killer of whores. His partner Kelsey (played by Jennifer Carpenter) is also hard-boiled, but way hotter. She's on the case of the Hooker-Killer too, and looks exceptionally cute in a beanie. She doesn't smile a lot though. Seems angry.

"Did you just call me cute?"

When Mike's teenage daughter is kidnapped by the Hooker-Killer (because she looks like a hooker herself, even though she's not), he goes off the deep end. Having just seen Taken, he goes all Liam Neeson in his efforts to find his hooker-looking daughter, before she ends up dead. (Little do Mike or Kelsey know, the Hooker-Killer is really just a Baby-Maker, kidnapping young whores and knocking them up, to facilitate his baby farm. So really, he's just misunderstood.)

... or maybe he's not.

Will Mike find his daughter before it's too late, and will everyone live happily ever after? Will he become Grandfather to a psychopath's love child, which was never meant to be? Will any of the chicks in this movie get naked, given the fact that it's about imprisoned hookers being knocked up? Far be it from us to spoil anything for you, but lets just say "no" to all of them.

Um...

This is not what it looks like?

As Serial Killer flicks go in the post "Silence of the Lambs" and "Se7en" world, The Factory holds up pretty well by comparison. That's not to say that The Factory is as good as the aforementioned masterpieces -they set the bar pretty high for their type of storytelling- but it holds its own and manages to be a capable homage of sorts.

Were not only suckers for Cop vs. Serial Killer flicks around here, but set one of them in a snowy, cold locale, and we're double hooked. Something about dark subject matter unfolding across a bitter cold and snowy landscape just sucks us in.This is a well made movie with a palpable atmosphere, and we enjoyed it aesthetically.

We also love John Cusack. Sure, he's far better suited to comedy, but he pulls off a troubled Cop rather well here. Jennifer Carpenter is one of our faves too, and she does her thing here just as she does it in everything else she's in. She's truly underrated. for the record, the rest of the cast does a good job here too, and is filled with great underrated talent.

She's always playing a cop.

There's not a lot here that's very new or unique, and maybe that's why it sat on the shelf for so long. Do we buy John Cusack in the role of a Cop on the edge? I don't know, maybe? Have we seen this same plot done and re-done, over and over again? Yeah. Did we see the twist at the end coming? Yeah. Are we tired of every genre flick having a twist ending, because it seems to be the status-quo these days? Hell yeah. Then why did we like this movie? We're suckers.

John Cusack's "I want answers!" face.

Why do some movies sit on the shelf for so long, not able to find anyone willing to distribute them?

The Factory isn't anything amazing, but it's a solid little Cop-Thriller that absolutely could have made some money on BD/DVD since 2008, so what gives? There's an ever-steady stream of God-awful junk that gets released on home video on a weekly basis, and I find it hard to believe that many of those movies would out-sell/rent this one. Here's my bold statement: The Factory could have made a few million in U.S. Theaters, made a decent amount in Foreign Theaters, and been an average seller on Home Video. Sounds crazy, right? It's not.

"At least you have Dexter."

 

We really love Thrillers that involve Cops on the trail of Serial Killers, so for us The Factory was an enjoyable watch. It's fairly by-the-numbers and isn't top tier by any means, but it definitely deserves its above average grade. If it ever hits BD/DVD in your country, give it a spin.If not, then I guess go watch Say Anything or Grosse Pointe Blank if you find yourself needing a Cusack fix.

C+

This movie has its share of Hottie action in it, even if a lot of it involves captive teenage girls locked in a basement sex-prison. Who are we to judge though?