Go with Me

'Go with Me' (aka 'Blackway') is a dismal waste-of-time, frittering away the talents of a decent cast on a routine revenge tale. Its story is as threadbare as an old dishrag, the direction dull, the dialog lifeless, the performances wooden and the cinematography colorless. Apart from a paycheck, it's hard to imagine what drew any of the participants to this mundane material, with no sign the actors and director were doing anything more than going through the motions. The plot of this contemporary Western is pitifully weak. The villain is revealed as a would-be rapist and killer of domestic cats within the first five minutes, and the rest of the film depicts three misfits searching for this bully-boy crime baron among the local lumberjack community. There's minimal character development as the oddball posse pursues their prey around the overcast mountain landscape in a rusting pick-up. From time to time their inquiries result in tired scuffles, until the film eventually sputters up to a night-time showdown at the bad guy's forest hideaway. After the adversaries go through their ho-hum appointment with destiny, another dank day dawns.

The movie didn't hold onto me.One of the most boring movie that I have watched. More could have been done to the plot of the movie. The starting is interesting but after a while the the plot became too predictable. No surprise elements are there. Anthony Hopkins's acting & portray of his character was good. Julia Stiles played the character of a woman who is in distress & in need of help. I didn't find her acting worth watching. Alexander Ludwig did justice to his role. A thriller is much more than what has been showed in the movie. There is no such twist or suspense. Just plain & simple story telling. Much hype has been created about the character "blackway" in the first half of the movie but couldn't justified it in the later half. According to me the movie is not worth watching. 2/10

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Lillian (Julia Stiles), a young woman in a small town coming to terms with the death of her mother (or her cat, anyway) finds herself being stalked by weird corrupt cop turned crime lord Blackway (Ray Liotta-who killed the cat, in case you were wondering. Just 'cos he's an arsehole, I guess.) With the local police proving pretty useless, she turns to old tree logger Lester (Anthony Hopkins), who's struggling with the death of his daughter, for help. The little old man, with his assistant Nate (Alexander Ludwig), proves more resourceful than expected, leading to a dramatic final confrontation with Blackway. At what's now a very late stage in his career, one time Hannibal Lecter himself Anthony Hopkins is now surfacing in these disposable thriller type of films, this latest of which has turned up straight on DVD, and with good reason. With its made for TV production values pretty low budget, this is a dismal, deadly dull affair that fails to come together and work. It feels like all the right ingredients were there, but it just failed to have any effect. The screen is drained of any light, leaving a grey, dinghy look over it all, and all that's in its place is a boring thriller where you fail to care about the story or any of the characters at all. Such a competent cast should have seen things work out better, with the likes of Hopkins and fellow veteran actor Hol Holbrook on hand, as well as Liotta who actually works well as a really nasty piece of work who gets off on making people feel uncomfortable. It's no less a failure, though, and one to be missed. *

Released in 2015, "Blackway" is a crime drama/thriller starring Anthony Hopkins as a retired logger who comes to the aid of a harassed woman (Julia Stiles) in Pinterville, Oregon, after the yella sheriff refuses to help. Alexander Ludwig plays the young stuttering redneck who tags along while Ray Liotta appears as the titular heavy. Hal Holbrook has a small role. This is a grim backwoods drama/thriller with elements of "The Edge" (1997), "First Blood" (1982), "Cry of the Owl" (2009) and "Walking Tall" (2004). It's not great like the first two, not even close, but it's almost on par with "Cry of the Owl" and slightly superior to "Walking Tall." Yet it never cops an unrealistic tone like "Walking Tall" does with its overblown final act. It's a low-key slow burn focusing on life in the logging communities in the Great Northwest. Speaking of which, one of the best thing about "Blackway" is the mysterious forest cinematography. There are also some small gems to mine, if you watch closely, like the fact that "man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward." Trouble just comes in different packages, as Hopkin's character laments before the showdown. "Blackway" is essentially a Western taking place in the modern day, substituting pickup trucks and bikes for horses. The movie's simple and straight-forward, which turns some people off. But since 'twist' films are so commonplace now playing it straight almost comes off fresh. I shouldn't close without pointing out that Stiles has better womanly curves now that she's older; and looks great in tight jeans. The film runs 91 minutes and was shot in British Columbia (Enderby, Vernon, West Kelowna, Lumby, Armstrong & Vancouver). It was directed by Daniel Alfredson from Castle Freeman Jr.'s novel. GRADE: B-