Working with a talented cast the movie Rushlights comes to DVD with a story that does its best to keep a foul play mystery intact, but never reaches a high level of credibility. Uneven direction and a script with a shaky plot that tries to set up twists that are too predictable to spin, do a lot of unrecoverable damage. On the bright side there’s very good performances by up and coming stars Josh Henderson and Haley Webb.
The movie centers on Billy Brody (Josh Henderson) a young man who has a criminal past. One evening at a diner he drops a line on the waitress Sarah (Haley Webb) and ends up taking her to his motel. After a few weeks of dating, Billy gets a frantic call from Sarah and rushes to her apartment to find her roommate dead on the couch from a drug overdose. Billy offers to help her run from the scene and she takes him up on it grabbing some clothes in a carry on bag.
After some time they pull into a hotel for the night and discover that the bag they took was her roommates. Going through her things they find her wallet and a letter from Cameron Brogden (Aiden Quinn) an attorney in Texas naming her as sole heir to her uncle’s estate. As luck would have it, Sarah looks a lot like the roommate so Billy helps her hatch a plan of going to Texas and claim the estate. When Sheriff Robert Brogden (Beau Bridges) and his brother Cameron become at odds over the credibility of Sarah, things start to heat up in Texas.
The plot actually starts out to be a good one even though some of the content becomes hard to swallow. As the film progresses it becomes obvious that the story starts to loose momentum due to its predictability so it starts to change direction with the addition of Edward Romero (Crispian Belfrage) Sarah’s roommate’s drug dealer coming onto the scene looking for a cut in the settlement of the will. Belfrage plays a drug dealer who somehow gets word where the two have gone and shows up at the house Sarah has inherited. He’s one of the better parts of the film adding some very brutal tactics that are right up there with characters played by Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta.
But, that’s still not enough to carry the film so the writer puts in several incredible scenes involving the Brogden brothers and their mother. The finale sorts it all out with some wild reasons for the ‘mystery plot points’ and the uncreative ending. Although it’s nice to see Quinn and Bridges in a film, this one really doesn’t add any value to their long movie careers.
The actors play out the script the best they can with Josh Henderson (The Girl Next Door) and Haley Webb (The Final Destination) putting their best in the film for a chance to get a future gig. They do a great job of following the direction and writing of Antoni Stutz, but his inexperience shows through and can’t get them a good enough script nor the stage to show their worth.
The film quality is very adequate in HD and the widescreen mimics the theatrical performance. The low light shots are actually very good in that the players are easily seen, especially in a few critical scenes. Some of the close-ups show a make-up flaw now and then, but nothing that’s really distracting.
The sound using the 5.1 Dolby Digital provided plays real well and I found no distortion in the disc. The special effects sound are quite good for an indie and the action gets enhanced with surround if you have it available on your system.
Rushlights has been rated R by the MPAA for violence, language, sexuality and drug use. Be cautious when deciding to allow anyone under 17 see the film as it does have some scenes that may be inappropriate.
Specifications and additional film information:
- Cast: Josh Henderson, Haley Webb, Beau Bridges, Aidan Quinn and Lorna Raver and Crispian Belfrage
- Directed by: Antoni Stutz
- MPAA Rating: R for violence, language, sexuality and drug use
- Genre: Action, Mystery, Crime
- Running Time: 1 hr 36 min
- Video Release Date: July 30, 2013
- Original Film Release Date: June 21, 2013
- Language: English
- Format: DVD
- Audio: 5.1 Dolby Digital
- Video: 16×9, 2.40:1 Aspect Ratio
- Subtitles: English SDH
- Number of Discs: 1 Disc
- Distributed by: Vertical Entertainment
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
