Bone Dry
Bone Dry
| 17 May 2007 (USA)
Bone Dry Trailers

Eddie finds himself being forced at a gunpoint, by an unseen assailant, on a dark and brutal journey through the harsh terrain of the Mojave desert. His nemesis is Jimmy, a man with an aberrant agenda; armed with a rifle, a scope, walkie-talkies and a truck, he has organized a series of ambushes and mantraps designed to push Eddie to the limits of his humanity and beyond.

Reviews
AboveDeepBuggy Some things I liked some I did not.
WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.
Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
NateWatchesCoolMovies Bone Dry is fantastic little piece of sun soaked, revenge fuelled melodrama that serves as a glowing showcase for its two leads, Luke Goss and a ferocious Lance Henriksen. Lean, mean, gritty and reminiscent of 1970's revenge outings, it's a bloody delight of a flick. Luke Goss, an actor who can give Henriksen a run for his money in the intensity department, plays Eddie, a well dressed dude with a suspiciously murky past, winding his way through the desolation of the Mojave Desert. After breezing through a lonely cafe run by a girl (always nice to see Dee Wallace) who clearly has eyes for him, he sets out through a particularly lonely stretch of the terrain, and that's where he finds himself in serious trouble. He's soon stalked by a menacing, mysterious man named Jimmy (Henriksen), who is intent on tormenting, taunting and messing him up at every turn. Jimmy is an ex war monster a man whose taken it upon himself to put Eddie through every ring of hell that the Mojave has to offer, all in service of some deeply buried reasons that emerge from the sand late in the third act, shedding scorching light on the two men's character arc, and giving the film quite the emotional boost. When I say hell, I mean it. Eddie suffers through some unspeakably horrific scenarios, including a scene involving a cactus that will induce mass cringing among audience members. Director Brett A. Hart has a heightened, almost Walter Hill-esque style to his film, with the intensity metre ratcheted up past the maximum, and editing trimmed down to whip smart strokes that put you right in the middle of Eddie's clammy desperation and Jimmy's enigmatic fury. Henriksen spends the first half of the film with his face shrouded, adding to the mystery of his character. He's a master of the craft who slowly lets the breadcrumb trail fall with every portentous mannerism and glowering posture until we finally see what Jimmy is really about. One his best performances. Goss doesn't let the energy sag for a single second, something he has always been great at. There's further work from the legendary Tommy 'Tiny Lister' Jr. as well, filling in another subplot stranded out there in the sand. This one is genre bliss, brutal and blistering until it cools off for a conclusion that cuts the viewer some respiratory slack after the breathlessness of its juggernaut setup. Terrific stuff.
MrGKB ...but fails to gel in a satisfactory way. Neophyte director/writer/editor/producer Brett A. Hart simply bites off more than he can chew. The plot hinges on a time-worn cliché of role reversal, and simply isn't compelling. The dialogue is at times trite and forgettable; there's nothing to really draw us into sympathizing with the ostensible protagonist. Both leads (Luke "Blade II" Goss and Lance "Near Dark" Henriksen) are pretty much cyphers until the predictable Act 3 revelations, and thus little empathy is engendered for either character. Neither actor evinces much range, though admittedly the script offers them slim opportunity to do much in the first place. Poor Dee "The Howling" Wallace is obviously taking a paycheck, along with Tiny "Jackie Brown" Lister and the rest of the negligible supporting cast. A lot of the photography is quite nice, evincing great effort to keep things "in motion," despite occasional lapses of technical quality. Scott "Hack!" Glascow's score is also laudable in establishing mood during otherwise dull transitions. Ultimately, it all boils down to the script, which fails to deliver. Its title unfortunately but aptly describes the substance of the film. "Bone Dry" remains of interest only to Henriksen fans, and Mr. Hart's backers. It remains to be seen if Mr. Hart can deliver something with a bit more juice in it. I'd have hated to have paid to sit through this in a theater, that's for certain.
sol (There are Spoiler) Strange to say the least the film "Bone Dry" keeps you guessing to just what's going on between the two stars in it Eddie, Luke Goss, and Jimmy, Lance Heriksen, for almost the entire movie.Eddie driving through the bone dry and sun soaked Mojave Desert, the hottest and lowest place in the Continental USA, is suddenly knocked out from behind and then after regaining consciousness is put through the ringer by his, for the most part, unseen and slightly crazed antagonist Jimmy. Jimmy in spite of his mindless and sadistic actions later turns out to be a man with a plan. A plan that Jimmy had in the works and perfected over the last two years.We get a number of hints in the film to why Jimmy has it in for the likable and what seems like harmless as a kitty cat Eddie. The hints are so confusing and disjointed that the film has to go into high gear, and add about ten more minutes, to explain to its audience just what's going on! P.S Before you see the movie "Bone Dry" do everything possible to avoid it's pre-released trailer. "Bone Dry's" movie trailer in fact gives away the the surprise ending before you even get a chance to see the movie!Forced, by a gleeful Jimmy, to find his way back to civilization before he falls prey to the wild animals, rattlesnakes & scorpions, or blistering heat and thirst of the unfriendly Mojave Desert Eddie, with a compass and walkie-talkie that Jimmy provided for him, treks his way north. North to Southern California and the main desert highway, where he can hitch-hike a ride, leading into the very populated golden state.Insane from thirst and being tortured by Jimmy, mostly from afar, Eddie makes it almost home when he runs into Marty,Carl Buffington, a love-child or hippie-like weirdo whom he first mistakes for Jimmy. It later turns out that the harmless looking Marty is anything but hippie-like when Eddie runs into his two friends big bad and black, at 6 foot 5 inch and 230 pound, Mitch played by Tiny, because he's so big, Lister and his big mouth but pea-brain partner Price, Chad Stalcup.***SPOILER ALERT From THIS POINT ON*** These two bumbling but very dangerous guys are trying to make a living by dealing in coke and doing, together with their double-talking advance man Marty, a not so good job at it.It just about then, after Eddie's encounter with Mitch & Price, that we get an inkling to what the heck the movie is all about, and just what's Jimmy's involvement in all this, and it's somewhat of a letdown. It' not that the ending of "Bone Dry" is not effective but were put through so much by Jimmy's crazy antics that we by then completely lost any sympathy for the guy. And that's in spite of what he went through that lead him commit the inhuman and despicable crimes all throughout the movie!
Darkweasel *SPOILER*The story here is simple. Luke Goss (Blade II, rubbish 80s boy band Bros) is held at gunpoint in the desert, given a compass and map by Lance Henriksen and told to head north. Henriksen turns out to be a very nasty character indeed, torturing Goss with water deprivation, burial in sand, and in one very Saw inspired sequence, a cactus and a pair of handcuffs.The problem is that the film simply doesn't maintain the suspense long enough. The dialogue is uneven and repetitive (amusingly highlighted by Henriksen's character himself at one point) and the addition of three needless characters do nothing but stretch out an already flimsy premise to breaking point. Very early on there are pieces of dialogue dropped in, leading you far too quickly to arrive at the conclusion that Luke Goss may not actually be a very nice chap himself.It's not entirely without it's charms though. Lance Henriksen is on top form (very reminiscent of his Near Dark character at some points), Goss himself is pretty decent, and you really do feel the suffocating desert heat, but by the time the conclusion arrives along with it's glaringly obvious "twist" you're just left with the feeling it was merely a padded out episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.