Blink Twice Review

[Westside Steve]

Blink Twice

MGM Amazon

R.            103 Min

So this issue will include two movies filed under weird for weird sake. CUCKOO was obviously Euro trash and a bit easier to write off as nonsense. There was a lot more money spent on BLINK TWICE and a somewhat higher profile cast and certainly better production values. Also hindered by the fact that with the elevated production values it also carries the weight of pretentious themes. No more or less nonsense than CUCKOO just flashier. It's directed by Zoe Kravitz daughter of pretentious but somewhat talented Rockstar Lenny Kravitz. This thing starts out as a pretty pointed comparisons to Epstein's Island. The character closest related to Epstein would be Slater King (Channing Tatum) who starts out with a public apology for some sort of debauchery that's gone on under his watch at  a giant corporation retreat atmosphere. From here we jump back and forth in flashback and whatever the opposite of flashback is as Kravitz tries to cobble together a continues telling of what went on. I'll give you a hint it's a little bit frenzied and hard to follow. Among the male and female guests there are plenty of episodes of sexually violent insanity drug use and some crazy things you don't know what they are exactly. Early in the film Slater picks up some party girls and invites them to come visit him on his island paradise.  I can tell you that each of these episodes become more and more dangerous and usually end in one or more guests winding up dead. There is also a special drug possibly only found on the island that makes the victim combine the emotions of extreme joy and extreme fear blended into one. Frightening combination to be sure and possibly the key to the entire Islands existence. So as soon as we almost figure out why these episodes are happening we're faced with the question of who is behind all this? Is Slater bright enough to have pulled it off? Or any of the doctors and psychiatrists politicians and business moguls behind any of this? Is the resident Mad Doctor pulling all the strings? If you suffer through what becomes a more and more gruesome and more and more boring film there's a final scene which throws all your suspicions into the trash. I won't even hint as to what that is but rather than being a wow moment it's more of a huh moment. As I often do I will ask a couple other audience members what they thought of the film and spoke to a couple of nice folks at one of my favorite places the Lake 8 Cinema in Barberton. The young man said he enjoyed it and particularly liked the twist ending. Upon asking him what he thought the twist ending meant he scratched his chin and admitted he had no clue. I'm not afraid to admit I didn't either. And that might be because neither did Kravitz. One positive I took from this movie is the Channing Tatum who I compare to a cheaper uglier and less talented Brad Pitt, actually performed a few scenes that seemed to take more acting talent that he's been called on to deliver before so good for him I guess. I didn't think Leading Lady Naomi Ackie was attractive enough for the role and looked even worse when covered with tears and snot in the throes of that particular drug.  Still Tatum was a very small bright spot for those of us who had to sit through this piece of crap.

D+

WSS