The Blind Man (Stephen Lang) is back! The man who did for turkey basters what Norman Bates did for showers returns to sock it to another bunch of home invaders stupid enough to trespass on the nutzo Navy SEAL’s property. This time, it’s a gang of scuzzy ex-military black market organ harvesters who want to strip his adopted daughter (Madelyn Grace) for parts. It does not take them long to realize they fucked with the wrong blind man.
While there’s nothing here that comes close to matching the immortal turkey baster scene of Fede Alvarez’s original, I have to say that new director Rodo Sayagues creates a number of nifty sequences. The scene where the home invaders stalk Grace is full of long takes that not only serve to heighten the suspense, but also map out the geography of the house for the audience. There’s also a clever sequence in which she is locked inside a metal box that is slowly being filled with water as well as a harrowing bit involving a wheelchair and a machete. My favorite part though was when Lang busted out some Krazy Glue on a perp, and for my money it’s the best Krazy Glue scene since Under Pressure with Charlie Sheen.
I know some viewers took issue with the filmmakers trying to take such a despicable character from the original and make him out to be the hero in this one, but as we learned from The Chronicles of Riddick, sometimes you have to fight evil with another kind of evil. I mean how can you argue with a movie’s morals when it takes its redemption arc nearly verbatim from the Return of the Jedi playbook? As the Video Vacuum always says, “If you’ve got to steal from somebody, steal from the best!”
While it falls just shy of matching the insanity of the first movie, Don’t Breathe 2 is a worthy sequel. It features more choice moments in one single suspense sequence than most sequels can muster in their entire running time. In short, it will leave you breathless.
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