Sublime

March 13, 2007

Rated: NR Runtime: 113 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Sublime bills itself as a sexy horror movie, just look at that DVD cover. In addition it’s “unrated” which is guaranteed to make you think there will be all kinds of tasty treats inside. Lastly, on the box summary is states “graphic, bold, sexual and utterly horrifying.” The hell it is! Graphic? Nope. Bold? Hardly. Sexual? Some quick humping, but you see nothing. Utterly Horrifying? Oh please, maybe if you were a teenage girl, and young one at that! But all is not lost, the movie has moments of beauty and some fine camera work, and the story isn’t all bad. The only problem is with expectations… just don’t expect a horror movie and you might enjoy it.

Sublime The movie starts out with George having a dream, a dream about falling. We’ve all experienced this, so when he’s seen distressed sitting on the edge of his bed we can relate. It’s just a dream, but damn is it asucky feeling. It also happens to be his 40th birthday so his wife surmises that it’s just stress about getting older and reminds him of the theory that if you hit the ground in a falling dream, you die. He didn’t hit the ground though and quickly proves this with a morning marital romp… we see nothing.

George is a bit stressed though as he has his first colonoscopy scheduled for the next morning and apparently he doesn’t like hospitals very much. He also has a big birthday party planned that night so there’s a lot to get ready for. Wait… he scheduled acolonoscopy for the day after his birthday party?! Obviously this would never happen in real life, the story acts like there’s some magical moment where you body knows it turned 40 and that if you don’t have your colon checked IMMEDIATELY you’re gonna die. So incredibly stupid, but it serves the story so that’s what happens.

When checking in for the procedure we first meet his nurse Zoe (the stunning Katherine Cunningham-Eves) and he experiences the only true horror of the movie, a hospital patient name mix-up. Georges last name is Grieves and there’s another patient named GeorgeGreaves who is also scheduled for surgery that day and is on the same floor. Nothing good can come from this.

George’s fears are born out when he awakens alone in a recovery room (er… that would never happen) and discovers a cut on his side that’s been stitched up. At least Zoe is still his nurse and is quite helpful in calming him down. As expected the surgeries were mixed up and to make it worse, there have been complications.

Are you feeling the “fear-drenched psychological thriller” yet? Me neither.

Unfortunately I can’t talk more about the plot as it would give away what few secrets this movie holds. If you don’t see at least the general direction of the ending within the first 15 minutes of the movie then you just haven’t been paying attention.

A more important question remains, if I was so disappointed then why give it 3 stars? Well, except for not being what I expected, I really liked the movie. The acting is darn good, the story somewhat interesting and the imagery the film presents is excellent. Plus, Zoe is amazingly fine and while we don’t really get to see her naked we do get a glimpse of what’s there. It is a bit long though and the ending was way too transparent so 3 stars is all I can honestly give it.

It’s worth watching if you’re in the mood for a story that could have been a Twilight Zone episode (even says that on the box), just don’t expect more than that.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Posted by John | Filed Under 3 Stars, DVD, David Clayton Rogers, Drama, Horror, Katherine Cunningham-Eves, Kathleen York, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, NR, Thomas Cavanagh