shulamitesf
If anyone says this was a bad movie, has got to naturally hate Ryan Phillpe. Junior's accent was spot on for Louisiana. It is possible for something like this to happen, which is scary within itself. The Security guard was funny too. I think this was a great breakout movie for Ryan. Instead of the same old teeny bop crap he's in, in this movie we actually see him as a man all grown up and sexy. hahahhahahah He captures a lot of what happens with Hollywood actors when they become an adult and how even at a young age, you can be considered "washed up". I give this movie and 8.
aceellaway2010
I give this movie a 5 because it is watchable. There are certain scenes that both repel and fascinate. Watching the guy skin the alligator was too much for this viewer, too graphic and detailed. Somewhere there was the essence of a good movie. But some things stand out as odd. This is not the first film I have seen with Ryan being held prisoner and tortured and beaten. When the "gay" part came up it seemed odd that it hadn't figured in the scenes of him going to the bathroom. Wouldn't the "Junior" character have said "I can't untie you, I'll have to unzip your pants and hold you stuff"? Which would have allowed a nice shot of Ryan's junk and not just his backside later in the movie. Ryan seems to think that a homo would only be interested in intercourse with his backside, -admittedly very pleasant to look at, and quite courageous I guess to put it on display in such a fashion.I found the role of the older kidnapper difficult, it just seemed too much of a caricature, seen in too many films.probably not the actor's fault but my feeling was "If you've seen one ,you've seen them all".Ryan certainly looks good for his age.I have no idea what the final sequence was about... was he thinking "I wish that me and junior had got it on...", or "it wasn't all bad..." I dunno, not a bad film, but not good. Maybe Ryan's next effort will be better.PS" my use of the words "intercourse" "stuff" and "backside" were forced because the review site would not accept the more "real' words I used.
bkoganbing
Ryan Phillippe directs and stars in Catch Hell the story of a film star on the downward slope of his career getting kidnapped by a pair of rednecks. One of them is Ian Barford who has a psychotic personality and a grudge against Phillippe for having a quickie with his wife. Poor Ryan he just can't remember who it was. Turns out she was a wardrobe girl on the set of one of his films. Barford and his nephew Stephen Louis Grush who's just a follower type drive off with him from his hotel in Shreveport, Louisiana and take him to a secluded cabin in the bayous.Of course Barford wants to kill him, but he also wants to humiliate him as well so he gets Phillippe to cough up his computer and Twitter passwords and he starts posting all kinds of noxious material, the kind that has ruined the reputations of folks like Charlie Sheen and Mel Gibson. No doubt Ryan Phillippe was going for a gay audience as well because of Grush's character. Throughout the film he's giving the look of love to Phillippe as he's a most closeted gay man. Life throws Grush a real nasty curve however. It gets good and homoerotic with Phillippe and Grush.I wish Phillippe had picked some better material for a directorial debut. But the man does show some promise there.
mgiorgio66
Yikes. I heard Phillipe promoting this on the radio and was intrigued. Downloaded it and boy was I disappointed. Just awful in almost every way. Now, I am not a fan of horror or B thrillers, and maybe that's what they were going for here, but still.......... Some of the actors were like out of a Troma film, the script was shoddy, predictable, pandering, and at times just simply stupid. The only good point to this entire movie, and the reason I didn't give it 1, was the actor who played Junior. He was wonderful. Interesting to watch, made some great and creepy choices, really seemed to delve into the world of the movie without taking US out as a result, and made his scenes memorable. Furthermore, it seemed apparent that the writer probably had this character in mind initially and built the script out from there, since he seemed to also be the only character that was fully developed, had layers, and a sense of a back story. There's even a really creepy shot of him doing shirtless chin ups and then just hanging on the bar like a monkey staring at Phillipe. A bit of artistic symbolism that seemed to conversely come out of nowhere in the rest of this mess. Ryan: stick to acting......you've been privileged to do some fantastic films alongside some turkeys. This one by far gobbled the worst.
AD
