Wednesday, February 7, 2018

THE LAZURUS EFFECT (2015) **


A group of scientists work together on a serum that can bring the dead back to life.  The experiment is a success when they bring a dog back from the dead.  When a mysterious pharmaceutical company tries to pull the plug on their funding, the scientists make one last ditch effort to duplicate the experiment.  Dr. Olivia Wilde winds up electrocuting herself in the process.  Her grieving husband, Dr. Mark Duplass uses the serum to bring her back.  Pretty soon, he realizes he shouldn’t have messed with mother nature.

We’ve seen this whole “scientists shouldn’t play God routine” hundreds of times by now.  What could’ve been a trite and routine horror movie is made bearable thanks to the great cast.  Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover, and Evan Peters make for a terrific team and they have plenty of chemistry together.  Duplass in particular is great.  The scene where he frantically tries to bring Wilde back is a standout.  YOU try telling him not to play God when he’s that crazed.

Unfortunately, even the fine acting can’t save the turgid third act.  It’s here where Wilde turns into an amalgam of Jean Grey and Carrie White, reading peoples thoughts, showing them visions of Hell, and killing them through telekinesis.  Although most of this is rather shitty, at least it features what I believe to be the first cinematic instance of death by E-Cigarette, so for that, it can’t be all that bad.

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