Brandon Routh and Dane Cook (clears throat) star in 400 Days. Huh?
See that cool looking poster image above? Well, that scene doesn't exist in this movie. The production couldn't afford to do anything nearly that cool. In fact, that's not even the space suit they wear in this mangled mess of a movie.
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| Lord, let me be funny again. Please. |
Don't tell my wife, but science fiction is my secret mistress. In the confines of my darkened basement, we have an on again/off again affair. Sometimes she (sci-fi) tweaks by brain and ravages my thought process with beautiful imagery and futuristic settings. Other times, she lets me down with such defined failures that the experience is ruined by poorly written, awkwardly bad genre pieces hampered by mediocre scripts and bad actors. With a cast that screams last ditch effort, 400 Days is the latter of the two.
This is a close corridors extravaganza that plays like a sad sack social experiment feature film gone awry. With the most god awful looking sets and a boring, wannabe thinking man's plot, 400 Days is a sleep inducing example of filmmaking that looks much worse than anything aired on SyFy. With former comedic up and comer Dane Cook and one hit wonder Brandon Routh at the helm of this disasterpiece, viewers will have nothing to latch on to. Begging its audience to accept this heartless offering is enough on its own. But expecting them to sit through this plotless series of hallucinations, dream sequences, and fight scenes is more than any director should expect. 400 Days is low brow genre fare that asks to be forgiven way too many times. With paper cut out performances across the board, this is a lame excuse for entertainment and an absolutely embarrassing resume entry for a former Superman.
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| What do you mean, recast Superman? |
Great sci-fi should make people think. It should bend the rules and at least try to rewrite our expectations of plot formulas. 400 Days is just a hair away from being an abysmal and tonally thoughtless piece of irrelevant digital media put forth by a director that should be flipping burgers instead of showing us how far these stars have fallen. In its short run time, nothing is accomplished. Characters have no story arc. And the movie literally goes nowhere but a ham fisted ending that once again asks its viewers to forgive the cardinal sin of a non-descript conclusion. From horrendous looking space suits to stale looking environments that might as well be a utility closet, I haven't seen a movie this bad in years.
It's a good thing Routh has the tv thing going for him right now. Otherwise, it might be lights out for his dwindling efforts to try and reignite a spark under his acting career. It's not that he's bad. It's that no one gave him a proper chance after the failure of Superman Returns. He should be shunning these dreadful flicks. They can't be paying the bills.
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Score
-CG