Genres

Visitors Review

wes-connors 2013-05-22 20:01:37

Machine Head Shot

"Left for dead in the remote Southwest, Frank (Val Kilmer) is foundclinging to life and in a state of amnesia. As he recovers from thebullet wounds, ominous memories begin to flashback - offering cluesthat point to an impending Presidential assassination," according tothe home video box. Recovering from his forgetfulness, Mr. Kilmer leadsthe cast in smoking cigarettes. You are likely to determine Kilmer'strue identity before he does. The JFK assassination is paralleled.Mysterious girlfriend Neve Campbell (as Chloe Richards) and nursingblonde Amy Smart (as Liz Culpepper) are very beautiful and directorMichael Haussman's slithery style carries some excitement, when thewomen are not on screen.**** Blind Horizon (12/16/03) Michael Haussman ~ Val Kilmer, NeveCampbell, Sam Shepard, Amy Smart

2013-05-22 07:37:57

Intriguing movie about the choices we make

Choice. In the end, that is what this film comes down to. It is the ultimate moment in the climax when the choice is made... and... well, you'll have to watch it yourself to discover the 'next' part.Val Kilmer play a great role, weaving in out from amnesia as well as sounding a bit slow on the uptake. When he becomes insistant that his attack has something to do with an upcomming presidential assination attempt, pieces of the puzzle begin to drop. Enter Neve Cambell, his fiancee although he does not remember her. She tries various things from pictures to talking to coax herself back into his memory but nothing seems to work. Not when he is focused on conspiracy. Or the beatiful nurse... Amy Smart, who has taken a liking to him. With several people involved in this smart thriller, the stakes are high. Yet, the suspense is what makes this movie the keeper. There isn't any real explosive action or violence. This film is more plot driven and relies on some character development to propel the action.When the end approaches, it becomes clear who is who, and who everybody thought everyone else was is not as predicatable. With a stunning performance by Cambell, this film offers up really good jobs put in by an A and B list of actors. While not so Blind to the viewer, Blind Horizon offers some thrilling insights into the confusion of the human mind.

orwell2112 2013-05-22 06:41:59

Quality suspense movie - sort of a darker "Bourne"

Disregard the pathetically low average rating for this film, which isactually what prompted me to add a review. When I read the earlierones, I was pleased to see most who took the time to add one enjoyedthe movie.In short - if you're looking for mindless, gut-busting action, thenthis movie might strike you as a "cold, greasy scrambled egg" as onereviewer cryptically described it.If you appreciate a more thoughtful approach to plot and characterconstruction that still delivers plenty of suspense despite itsunderstatement, then it might perhaps be nearly as palatable as, say, awarm, non-greasy scrambled egg.It's also worth noting that Sam Shepard delivers a great performance inthe film. Enjoy.

LaserLounge 2013-05-21 14:45:59

Slow paced Deja-Vu

Not bad enough to be called bad but not good enough either. I watched itduring 3 evenings. I fell asleep but was still wondering what happensnext.But it didn't really happen very much until the end. Amy Smart isdefinitelythe highlight of the money. Not because of her acting but because of herlovely face. The movie is about amnesia. And so I feel about it now: I'veforgotten everything but Amy's smile.

2013-05-17 12:37:25

OVER-COOKED, UNDER-WHELMING

He's shot on a remote arid pasture of New Mexico. Loses his memory. Wakes up on a hospital cot with all these flashes, you know, US president being assassinated by snipers and all that jazz. No one quite comprehends what White House has to do with this forlorn desert but that's the rote mystery of it all. Intriguing setup? Well, borderline. But the execution is so flaky, so pseudo-MTV like, it annoys more than it entertains. Strange characters spring up periodically for no rhyme or reason, accompanied by high octane outbursts of sepia and B&W -- flashbacks one concludes. All of which resolves into a painfully deja vu plot. Every time a clue comes up it feels like a stray clip from a Depeche Mode video. The experience is grating, not so much for all the adoloscent 'twists' up its sleeve, certainly not for a lack of top stars (Val Kilmer, Neve Campbell, Sam Shepard), but for its aesthetic predicated on sudden bass thumps and scattershot imagery.In other words, a loud B-grade thriller that induces amnesia in its audience faster than its own protagonist could try and remember.

Enchorde 2013-05-17 02:57:13

Just average

Recap: A man is found out in the desert, shot and left for dead. But hesurvives and the sheriff starts to investigate. There aren't many cluesthough as the man doesn't remember anything, not even his name. Hisfiancée shows up a few days later though saying that his name is FrankKavanaugh. But bits and pieces of Frank's memory returns and he startsto make outrageous claims that the president will come to the littletown, and that someone wants to assassinate him. After that strangethings and strange people turns up and especially one cute nurse getsFrank's attention.Comments: A good story but an average and pretty ordinary thriller. ValKilmer stars but also gets very good support from Amy Smart and NeveCampbell, but maybe especially Sam Shepard. But a thriller that issupposed to be full of surprises, it hurts from being awfullypredictable. Almost from the very beginning it is clear how it is goingto end, and the movie confirms these predictions step by step.So even if the story is good, albeit a little full of clichés, the castis good, both Kilmer and Smart are underrated, it turns out to be justaverage. It's a typical movie to watch an evening when the schedule isempty, but nothing to put before anything else.6/10

katatoe 2013-05-13 18:33:32

Great Rainy Day Movie

I don't think I would have enjoyed this film as much if I hadn't beensick after 2 days of hard work with my performance troupe (longstory!).I love Amy Smart & Neve Campbell. I once loved Val Kilmer (until Iheard his band), but as an actor - I definitely respect him. He seemsto have an addiction to these types of movies (De Ja Vu, Conspiracy,etc. - aka, Wannabe Psychological Thrillers). He should stop trying tobe Bruce Willis and stick to character acting.Pros: Great scoring. Some good artistic shots of cigarette smoke. Cons: The storyline was very easy to predict. Camera angles & pans canbe a little cheesy.

plutokennedy 2013-05-13 10:18:39

Deja Vu

A man gets shot, wakes up from a coma suffering from amnesia. He tries tofigure out who he is and why he feels that the president's life is indanger.This not overly original plot is rather awkwardly handled by directorMicheal Haussman, who makes sure that you figure out what is reallyhappening pretty fast. This just proves that music video directors arenotnecessarily great story tellers. Decent performances by most of the cast,but Kilmer's is not very believable. Still, the movie is watchable,thoughit clearly has a 'direct to DVD' feel to it.

Robert J. Maxwell 2013-05-09 00:18:33

Confused but atmospheric thriller.

Well, I missed the first part of the movie and maybe that accounts forwhy I didn't understand the details of the plot. The general outline isclear enough. Val Kilmer is involved in a plot to assassinate thepresident and for some reason is shot by the plotters to get him out ofthe way. Maybe he had doubts about the legality of such a plan.But its detailed explanation, if there was any, escaped me. I couldusually tell the bad guys from the good guys, but not always. Thingshappen that seem to point nowhere and add nothing to the plot. WhenKilmer returns to his hotel room for the last time, why is it loaded upwith guns of all kinds? The performances aren't bad and the script, asit appears on the page or tumbles out of the actors, is okay but it isso elliptical as to elude comprehension. The nanosecond-long flashbacks-- sometimes in black and white, sometimes not -- are too fragmentaryto be of much help. Kilmer is more uncertain and stutters more thanusual. Neve Campbell looks good and can dance. Amy Smart is nacreouslyblond, probably the hottest girl in her high school, stunninglybeautiful along flamboyantly Aryan lines, whom all the boys lustedafter and wanted to pinch and bite. (The girls on the other handwouldn't have minded watching her fall head first into a shredder.)The locations are pretty well done. Las Vegas, New Mexico, looksdustier and seedier than it actually is. Still -- here are Kilmer andthe mysterious Campbell as his supposed fiancée. They gradually seem tofall for one another and get it on together. When she unexpectedly hasher head blown off, Kilmer glances at the body for a moment then easesout the door and Campbell is immediately forgotten.Maybe you should make sure you see the first 15 minutes or so. Then, asCharlie Chan promised, all will be explained.

xer0derm 2013-05-08 03:27:17

Interesting movie, but done before

The movie overall was very entertaining with plenty of twists and turns.However, for the most part many of the deceptions have been done before,making for a relatively predictable movie. None the less, I found itextremely entertaining, and would definitley watch it again in order togeta better understanding of the movie as a whole.8/10

ma-cortes 2013-05-07 15:15:11

Stimulating suspense, noisy action and sharp-edge thriller as well as top-notch cast

Frank(Val Kilmer) is a lone man with no identity who loses his recordsand suffers amnesia after being wounded in the desert of New Mexico. Hehas visions about truck accident, hit men, clown,explosion and snipers.He's attended in a hospital of a small town by a beautiful nurse(AmySmart) and the doctor(Gil Bellows). Meanwhile the sheriffs town(SamShepard , Noble Willinghan) are investigating the strange deeds. Andappear a mysterious girl(Neve Campbell) reclaiming to be his fiancée.Events go wrong and he realizes he can be a murderer has been hired tokill the US President. He must find a way to find out the enigma.This Neo-noir film packs action, suspense, thrills, shoot-out up andexciting scenes. The main and secondary casting make a first classperformance. Kilmer as hapless is cool, he's the first among equal fromextraordinary cast, such as Sam Shepard as obstinate deputy , GiancarloEsposito as a stubborn journalist and Faye Dunaway as shifty woman,among others. The film is slickly narrated in original manner by meansof several flashbacks, puzzles and jigsaw, for that reason and itspretentious plot results to be a little confuse. Contains stimulatingaction set pieces as the spectacular gun-play proceeded in a tumultuoussquare where come in the US President. There's a little homage to theMexican wrestling genre when the starring enter to theatre while areshowing the film titled 'Santo faces death'(1969)directed by Orozco andstarred by Santo and Frank Braña. The film is produced with middlingbudget by Milennium, as usual, Avi Lerner, Danny Lerner, Trevor Shortand Boaz Davison. The motion picture is professionally directed byMichael Haussman in his first and only movie. Although sometimes isdull and boring, the superb cast, relentless intrigue and fascinatingthriller make this one well worth seeing.

2013-05-07 03:47:33

Moody but Confusing

I'm still not sure what happened at the end, and I don't feel inclined to watch it again. The plusses? Well-photographed with some nice moody Tex-Mex scenes. Sam Shepard I liked as the friendly cigar smoking sherrif. Val Kilmer was OK but it would have killed him to wash his hair? The female roles were OK and predictable. The American movie industry again tries to persuade us that a multiple killer/assassin hired to shoot the President; who in one flashback kills a man in front of his child; and in another murders a victim in a confessional, is just a little misunderstood and needs the right woman to set him straight. Aw shucks who couldn't forgive that toothy grin.

Jim Henderson 2013-05-06 07:40:46

A Mess

I could go on about the plot holes and inexplicable missing elements(like main character motivations!), the thin characters with no realopportunity to develop, a musical score that is off base it is almostfunny, and finally a director who clearly is out of his element whennot doing music videos.Note to the director: Scenes, camera movement, and music are supposedto serve the story not become the story.From reading the comments it looks like the original script had promise(I would say the ideas are interesting and might explain how they wereable to attract some name actors) but the leadership of the filmobviously did not have any real vision on how to bring all the elementstogether.An example of a real bad choice would be the constant use of MiddleEastern influenced vocalizations in a movie that is supposed to be setin Southern New Mexico. Now that is not to put down the actual music,as it is really pretty good own it's on. It just seems to me nobody wasquestioning the direction of the musical choices.For me this is a failure by the director. In every major element of thefilm; from editing, the character choices made by the actors, thescore, and the cinematography it is like they all were trying to dothere own thing. No one seemed to be insuring that all the oars wererowing in the same direction.

jotix100 2013-05-05 17:29:20

Amnesia

"Blind Horizon" directed by Michael Haussman was shown on cable theother night. The cast assembled seemed interesting, so we decided totake a chance with it. There are a lot of ideas behind the plot, whichreminded this viewer about the Kennedy assassination in Dallas in 1963,but this story is not fully realized. The problem basically resides with the screen play. It is not too wellconstructed, as we figure what is coming before it happens. The amnesiaplot is something that has been done ad nauseam and adds nothing tothis movie.Val Kilmer's character is an enigma from beginning to end. NeveCampbell's Chloe doesn't have anything in common with Frank; nochemistry whatsoever. Also, Faye Dunnaway is shown mumbling her linesmost of the time. Amy Smart and Sam Shepard don't have greatopportunities to shine.

jbtv2 2013-05-04 12:36:42

A positive but lukewarm experience.

Saw this at the Taos Film Festival. I participated in the movie asPresident of the United States (target!). I felt that the movie wasdefinitely mediocre overall. I thought some of the camera work wasdifferent and good, but overall the performances seemed a bitcontrived. I agree with some reviewers that the amnesia thing has beendone ad nauseum, but I did feel the filming probably portrayed anaccurate feeling of trying to regain memories. An interesting cast tolend itself to this particular film. I thought Sam Shepherd and FayeDunaway were quite believable in their roles.I would like to see this released to DVD so I can go over it again toexamine it a bit more closely.

Jeroen de Lange 2013-05-03 22:57:52

a man looses his memory and then drinks lots of tequila

Trust me, if I wake up in a hospital, having amnesia as a result from abullet to the head and I have a vague recollection it's got something to dowith killing the president. I'ld be out of that little town fast, realfast.No, not in this movie, our hero spends the next hour or so (of the movie!!!)in the local pub drinking beer and tequilas and smoking one cigarette afterthe other. Trust me, I speak out of experience, that's the way to loose yourmemory, not to regain it.There might have been more to it but I didn't get it.I don't think you will either...

davideo-2 2013-05-03 11:23:40

Intriguing made-for-video thriller

STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That LittleBit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits Having sustained a head injury, Frank (Val Kilmer) awakens in hospitalwith nothing but a vague recollection of events that went before himand a knowing that the president will be assassinated in a smallAmerican town. With few people finding his story credible, he must raceagainst the clock to put the pieces together and prevent wrong-doing ofterrible proportions...This is an engrossingly brainy video effort with an impressive use ofcamera and colour. Kilmer is never usually my most enjoyable of actors,but he is impressive here and so are the supporting cast includingNoble Willingham, Neve Campbell and Faye Dunaway. ***

bkoganbing 2013-05-03 07:13:11

Fragmented Memories

Although we never really know why for certain a group of people want toassassinate the president, bits and pieces can be gleaned if onelistens carefully to the background news coverage playing while theaction of Blind Horizon is front and center. The main thing is that aman with a case of amnesia seems to know that a presidentialassassination is to take place in a small Texas town and the presidentain't even supposed to be there in his campaign for re-election.Val Kilmer plays the protagonist in Blind Horizon. Some Indian kidsfind him shot and left for dead at the bottom of a cliff. The wound wasa scalp laceration and the bullet didn't penetrate, but the fall hasleft him with a case of amnesia and only bits and pieces of his lifeseem to come together.His mysterious presence has aroused the curiosity of Sam Shepard whowants to solve the mystery as he is the county sheriff and is runningfor re-election himself, his opponent being his own deputy NobleWillingham.Kilmer has three women in his life, a fiancé played by Neve Campbellthat of course he can't recall, Amy Smart, a hospital nurse willing toput in lots of overtime to help this patient recover and Faye Dunawaywho seems to drift in and out of his fragmented memories for nodiscernible reason. Just who's playing on his team if Kilmer even has ateam.Blind Horizon seems to borrow a lot from both Warren Beatty's TheParallax View and the Gregory Peck thriller Mirage. Especially the Peckfilm, if you remember Peck was also suffering from a hysterical amnesiabrought on by a traumatic event.Probably best in the cast is Sam Shepard as the small town sheriff whoknows he's a small cog in things, but isn't about to let a presidentget himself killed in his town on his watch.The depiction of a small town in Texas is one of the best we've seensince Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show. Blind Horizon might beworth a look and it's a shame that a lot of critics dismissed it thefirst time around.

lastliberal 2013-04-29 20:17:22

Suspense and Neve Campbell - Hooyah!

There isn't much that Neve Campbell (Scream, Wild Things) can do thatisn't worth watching, even a straight-to-video thriller like this.Val Kilmer (Heat, batman Forever) plays an amnesiac that has briefglimpses of a Presidential Assignation. Except for the fact that thePresident isn't anywhere near where they are, it could be believable.It is another case of everything not being what it seems, and that iswhat makes it fascinating.It also stars Sam Shepard (The Right Stuff, Paris Texas), as theSheriff. Shepard is always worth watching and gives a very goodperformance here.

evidence 2013-04-29 11:38:11

SPOILERS...SPOILERS...

I saw this movie just a couple of hours ago and must say it is BORING ANDVERY PREDICTABLE. Dont waste your money on it. We have seen many scriptsinthe last few years with similar plots and suprise endings. This one was nosuprise at all. Ok they tried to give us hints, but they gave away thewholestory. I could tell Frank was the assasin himself and Chloe was not hisfiancee the first 20 minutes. I expected better from these actors. MaybenotCampbell, but Kilmer is at an age where he cant risk to play in thesesillymovies anymore. 4 out of 10. And that just to be nice.