Trespass (2011) : Gimmie Da Loot !!! [Mike’s Review]
Today on Cage Club we try to survive a home invasion in Trespass. Contrary to what I believed this is STILL not a direct to DVD or straight to VOD movie from Cage. This film was actually released in a few theaters for at least one weekend or so, and that counts !!! So, while we are still not in the straight to DVD content, that doesn’t meant this is a quality product that should have gone to theaters.
We have returning director from 8mm Joel Schumacher here again to flex his non superhero muscle and that got me excited. 8mm was a gritty and tense thriller that delivered some really great moments and made me forget all about those Batman movies that Schumacher made. I wish I could say this movie had me the same way that 8mm did, but for whatever reason, Schumacher just didn’t seem to have control of the material in the same way as before. We also have Ben Mendelsohn returning from Knowing where he played Cage’s best friend, but this time he is Cage’s worst nightmare as a home invader looking to terrorize as well as rob.
It is worth noting that originally Cage left the production for a day because he thought he was playing the villain. The rumor reports that Cage thought he was playing the bad guy, showed up and was told he was playing the Father, and then Cage walked off set only to return the next day to resume the role he was supposed to. It’s a strange story and I find it hard to believe that Cage would sabotage and entire production like that, but apparently they hired new actors and everything, but Cage returned and we get the movie we get. It could have been much more interesting for me to have gotten Cage as the bad guy in this movie. It is the better role with more going on and much crazier lines and levels or emotion, plus I am starting to get a little jaded with Cage always playing the “good” guy even when he is a bad guy lately he has been morally just.
In this movie Cage plays Kyle Miller, a diamond dealer that is hustling to keep his family accustomed to their wealthy lifestyle. He neglects his wife and daughter just to keep his head above water financially and they both seem to resent him for it. His daughter sneaks out to a party after being grounded and his wife may have strayed from their vows causing tension and strain on the marriage. It seems like the family may need to survive a traumatic situation in order to bring their bond closer back together. Luck for them a gang of thieves has designed on robbing their house with a combination of brute force and mind games. While I write this I realize I am making this movie sound much better than it plays. Sure, the premise is one that has been done a thousand times, but there is always potential to pull it off, except maybe this time .
Enter Ben Mendelsohn as Elias and his gang of hoodlums. They make it very clear, very early, that they are here for the diamonds. Elias’ little brother Jonah has been watching the family, either posing as or actually working for a home security company. He has seen Cage handle diamonds and money in the past so he knows there is a score here somewhere. Jonah has also been putting the moves on Sarah, played by Nicole Kidman. It’s not clear if they really had a full on affair or if it was just to gain leverage somehow. Cage makes it abundantly clear that there are no diamonds, and if there were he goes into a long speech about how hard it is to sell stolen diamonds. This doesn’t deter the crooks and they get him to open the safe, but there really are no diamonds in there. Cage is a mover and shaker, hardly surviving. He confesses to his wife that they are broke. The thieves go nuts and for the rest of the movie they begin to turn on each other.
The movie is kinda stuck in one gear for the second act, torture Cage about where the money really is. The bad guys don’t believe the house is empty and think there has to be cash somewhere so they kick, punch, shoot him for answers, but to his credit he never cracks. It’s not until most the gang is dead and Jonah is thrown thru a wall that we finally see there was some money hidden away by Cage intended for him and his family to move and get back on their feet in case of an emergency. A fire is started and as the house burns there is a fight in which Cage nails Jonah’s foot to the ground with a nail gun causing him to be engulfed in flames and burn to death. The family crawls out to the back yard and hold each other, a bond reforged and closer than ever after having survived this traumatic encounter.
That will do it for Trespass !!! Unlike Seeking Justice, I just never went along for the ride with this genre. I liked the set up as it felt more like a play that was filmed, or a bottle episode, everything was going to take place in this one location. But the film didn’t really use the house creatively and everything just felt like they were killing time, or being repetitive. You can only take so many scenes of “Where’s the money?” and “I don’t know”. The acting wasn’t the worst, but I didn’t get engaged like I was with 8mm and I blame that on the director. There is also a very confusing and bizarre use of flashbacks in this movie that immediately took me out of the “story” and conveyed the same ambiguous information over and over again. I just think that this one may reside towards the lower section of the Cage Club rematch pile.
Next up on Cage Club we have our second sequel in Cage’s only other franchise with Ghost Rider : Spirit Of Vengeance. I am looking forward to returning to this character. The first Ghost Rider has some issues, but ultimately it’s one of the better superhero/comic book movies that is not in the MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE and I am excited to see where Cage takes the character next. Is this a sequel or a soft reboot? We will find out next time on Cage Club
Mike
@the_mikestir
