Director
Ernie Barbarash
Cast
Rob Lowe………Ted Cogan
Marnie McPhail………Molly Cogan
Ben Lewis………Max Cogan
Zachary Bennett………Jake Witzky
DVD Release Date: November 20, 2007
Rating: R
Running Time: 89 Minutes
The Movie
Ted Cogan is an Iraqi war veteran who has recently come home from active duty. His last memories from the battlefield happen to be that of an Iraqi family trying to make a break for it in a van and his team blowing it to bits burning everyone inside alive. A young girl and her entire family ended up blown to bits and burnt beyond recognition but they aren’t gone for good. After awakening from a coma upon his return home, Ted sees the family everywhere he goes and must learn what they want before it is too late.
If you’re looking for more of an explanation to the film, you’re not going to get one. That’s simply because there isn’t much else to tell. Well here’s an idea. If you really want to get a better idea of what Stir Of Echoes 2 is about then rent or buy a copy of Stir Of Echoes and enjoy yourself so much more. This was the most boring and aggravating hour and a half that I’ve experienced in a long time.
First of all is how much you are going to hate every single character in the film except for that of Ted Cogan (Rob Lowe). The man just gets back from Iraq and his wife is being a complete and total bitch to him the entire film; there’s really no other way to describe her. His son is just being rude, disrespectful, and nothing more then an ass. Rob Lowe is not a good actor and never has been. Everyone knows that he was simply hired long ago because he was a pretty face. But the other actors in Stir Of Echoes 2 make him look like James Cagney.
Perhaps even more bothersome is how annoyed those that have seen the first film will be right off the bat. Everything that could have been repeated or copied from Stir Of Echoes was and it is blatantly obvious. Rob Lowe’s character gets headaches and drinks a lot of orange juice just as Kevin Bacon’s character did in the first one. Random scars and fevers come about to Lowe’s character just like Bacon’s. They even went as far as to name the main characters Ted and Molly while the first film had Tom and Maggie. At times there are scenes that even appear completely identical to some from the first one and Ted even finds help from a random black guy like Maggie (Kathryn Erbe in Stir Of Echoes) did; it’s ridiculous.
Stir Of Echoes 2 did one thing right and one thing only. At one point, Ted seeks help from a name he got from the random black guy that magically appeared to him. As my girlfriend and I sat watching, the name of Jake Witzky seemed so eerily familiar. I passed it off as them ripping off something from the first film, but my girlfriend soon figured it out. Jake Witzky was the son of Tom and Maggie from Stir Of Echoes and he was able to help because he’s gone through all this before with his dad. That was an excellent continuity plot point, but sadly the only thing even worth mentioning from this debacle of a feature film.
The Video
The film is shown in 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format and is bad, just bad. If the action on screen isn’t taking place in the dark then everything looks great. Unfortunately, more then ninety percent of it takes place in the dark and shadows and you can’t see anything. I’m talking pitch black at times.
The Audio
The film is heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and it works at times but just has too many volume problems. When civil conversations are going on, they can’t be heard without turning the volume up. Two seconds later a dead guy shows up and blows your eardrums out.
Special Features
Audio Commentary – Director Ernie Barbarash and editor Mitch Lackie sit down to discuss the film and they sound genuinely excited about it. They discuss very basic stuff such as filming locations, the low budget they had to work with, and how it was with Rob Lowe and the other actors. Barbarash actually goes in depth about how much he enjoyed the first film which is incredibly obvious.
Deleted Scenes – Eight deleted scenes that are just as pointless as the film itself. Keep an eye out for the one deleted scene at the party where Molly gets a drink from a friend of hers and her voice goes all deep as she says, “You da’ man!”
“Stir Of Echoes: Homecoming” Featurette – This is a behind the scenes featurette that runs about twelve minutes. The director is joined by actors Lowe and Marnie McPhail to talk about how they felt making the film and all that such thing. They basically show a bunch of clips from the film and they ramble on about them.
Trailers – Stir Of Echoes: Special Edition, Captivity, The Descent, Bug, and The Dresden Files: Season One
The Inside Pulse
Just stay away from this film because it is trying to be the first Stir Of Echoes except with different actors and a different setting. Everything is so similar, but you think then that it would make it a good film right? Wrong. The rest in between all the similarities is so annoying and boring that you never thought an hour and a half could last so long. Throw the special features in for even more boredom and
