HEFE'S REVIEW OF:
1408 (2007)

OPENING THOUGHTS

    This movie has been floating around in my Netflix queue for about two years and somehow it has never managed to make it to the surface in all of that time. I suppose that speaks to how interested I was in seeing this film, in fact if Samuel L. Jackson wasn't in this movie, I probably would have skipped it all together. But as it happened, in a fit of laziness I had not returned my watched films and was forced to look around on cable for something to watch. Guess what I found... no I mean after the soft core porn... that's right, 1408, and then more soft core porn.

ACTING

    JOHN CUSACK has been having a string of films in which he seems to be doing his best to be unimpressive. Just last week I watched Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil and went on a long rant about how outclassed he was when he was acting opposite Kevin Spacey. However in this film, for the most part anyway, he acted with just himself. Acting masturbation if you will. So when compared to nothing, he certainly does seem better, however I still found myself wondering if this movie would have been better had they gotten a more skilled actor to play the part.
    SAMUEL L. JACKSON only had about ten minutes of screen time in this film, and while I enjoyed his usual intensity, I found myself irritated that he was not in the movie more. In fact there were times that I resented him personally for agreeing to do a character that really had no depth or substance, but then I calmed down and remembered he had a starring role in Snakes On A Plane and I remembered he did it for the paycheck. Which is something I do everyday, except for a lot less money.
    TONY SHALHOUB somehow got a box credit for about thirty seconds of screen time and two lines. I love the guy, but how the hell did that happen? Why did he agree to do such a small part? Well the only thing I can think of is he owed someone a favor and that debt is now paid in full. His limited character was the complete opposite of his now famous character Monk from the show of the same name, and it was good and believable. I am huge fan of the aforementioned series and will be sad to see the show end this year, but I will be interested to see what he does once he has the time to do something else. I just realized I wrote more words about Shalhoub than he had lines in this film. Sweet.

DIRECTION AND SCRIPT

    MIKAEL HAFSTROM did a good job with the effects in this film, for the most part everything looked very realistic and I liked the look of the room itself. There was not a lot of unnecessary CGI to muck everything up, it was just simple and interesting to look at. My only real complaint with this movie is that everything felt very tame. It may have looked real but it felt tame. I suppose that happens when you are held to making a horror movie and sticking to a PG-13 rating, but part of me does wonder what would have happened if the studio had let the leash they had on this guy go and he was able to make a real fright flick. Much like the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, I suppose the world will never know.
    MATT GREENBERG, SCOTT ALEXANDER and LARRY KARASZEWSKI wrote the screenplay for this movie based on a short story written by Stephen King, who himself only wrote the story as a writing exercise. This does not exactly hold a lot of promise for the story having a lot of depth, and indeed, as it happens it didn't. In fact my guess is that they had to expand the short story in order to fill an entire film, and as such diluted the substance even further. There were a couple of interesting tid-bits here and there, but for the most part this movie is exactly what you see in the trailers. Put a guy into a locked room and watch as a bunch of shit happens to him inside said room. Pretty basic, and by the end I have concluded, pretty boring. I do think the story had potential, but I think more needed to be explained, I think Samuel L. Jackson's character could have been something more, like the devil or something, or the room could have actually had a reason for it being "alive" as it were. That's my opinion anyway.

THE VERDICT

    This is a really average and tame thriller, the acting is essentialy John Cusack and a few cameos, and Cusack was not remarkable enough to make the role memorable. While some of the effects were neat to look at, I felt like this movie was held back by it's PG-13 rating and lack of depth. If you are a boring average person, this movie should meet your expectations until such a time as you slit your wrists to escape the monotony of everyday life. Otherwise, you can probably skip this movie without a shred of regret.
 
 

THIS FILM HAS BEEN RATED

C-
  It's average but with a "-".
Don't pretend like you don't know what that means.
TO VIEW OUR RATING SYSTEM CLICK HERE
 

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