Dark Country – DVD Review

Film, Reviews

DarkCountry_DVD

I’ve never really thought much of Thomas Jane’s acting skills and apparently his directing skills are 100-percent worse as Dark Country, his directorial debut, shows.

Richard (Jane) meets a card dealer in Vegas (Lauren German) and marries her that night. The next night the two newlyweds head off across the desert to start their lives together. However when they come across a car accident and pick up the horribly wounded man their lives turn into a hellish nightmare. And by the time you get to the “big reveal” at the end you really don’t care, you just want it to be over. It is closer in spirit to a Twilight Zone episode that goes on way too long as opposed to a genuine scary movie.

The films opens with a voice-over monologue that feels like it was stolen straight out of Sin City and a majority of the film seems to be shot on Green Screen. This film looks really, really bad, however, showing that perhaps technology isn’t a cure all for a bad film. Dark Country goes overboard, even using CGI for scenes involving a car. One would suspect that it would be cheaper just to use a car as opposed to create it on a green screen, but that’s the least of the film’s problems.

The plot is stupid, the characters are bland, uninteresting and unlikable and there really doesn’t seem to be any point to the whole proceedings. The acting is poor, the writing is poor, and the production value looks like they spent all of fifty cents on the thing. It’s pretty much agonizing to sit through the whole 88 minutes.

Shot in both 2-D and 3-D, Dark Country was to be released in theaters in both formats ala Final Destination, but going direct to DVD it is presented in merely 2-D. With a few shots intended for use with 3-D standing out, it winds up being unintentionally comedic.

Dark Country is proof that perhaps Thomas Jane should stick to being a mediocre actor, as opposed to a poor director.

The film is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound, but looks awful. The source material has a lot to be desired, of course, and it doesn’t help that the presentation isn’t strong either.

Commentary with Thomas Jane, Screenwriter Tab Murphy and Producer Patrick Aiello: When a movie is this bad it’s hard to listen to people say anything good about it without rolling your eyes and groaning.

Journey to Dark Country: (10 min.) Typical EPK piece with nothing of note.

I’ve seen some bad movies in my time and while this wasn’t the worst film I’ve ever seen, it was pretty torturous. I wouldn’t recommend this film to anyone for any reason ever. A complete waste of 88 minutes, recommendation to avoid at all costs.


Sony Pictures presents Dark Country. Directed by Thomas Jane. Written by Tab Murphy. Starring Thomas Jane, Lauren German and Ron Pearlman. Running time: 88 minutes. Rated R for some violence, bloody images, language and sexuality. Released on DVD: October 6, 2009. Available at Amazon.com.

Mike Noyes received his Masters Degree in Film from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. A few of his short films can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebnoyes. He recently published his first novel which you can buy here: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-Years-Mike-Noyes-ebook/dp/B07D48NT6B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528774538&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+days+seven+years