Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Year Released: 2001
Rating: 1.5
Clever set-up in the first act becomes baffling tedium in the last act, as Fresnadillo's film (which a friend describes as "Unbreakable, but with luck instead of strength") fails to insert a unique, paranormal concept - that of good and bad luck exchanged through people - into a worthy story. Lots of films come and go, but when I see a potentially good movie ruined by an overabundance of style and weak writing - which introduces implausible gambling games (a giant green bug?) and contains several loose ends that are never resolved - the comedown is only made worse. For the finale, Fresnadillo decides to have his hero run thoughtlessly into the desert, since by that time the storyline has imploded and there's nowhere left to go - the sign of a screenwriter writing himself into a hole. And for those of us that bothered to pay attention the whole way through, the consolation of having the man eaten by coyotes or starving to death is made implausible ... resulting in even more frustration.
