Dorathen
Better Late Then Never
Hadrina
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Stephan Hammond
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Scarlet
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Fekket Cantenel
Sometimes when you're watching a movie, you see or hear something - a badly-said line, a stupid joke, a predictable plot "twist" - and think to yourself, "Now is time to consider hitting 'stop'/walking out". Three flags in the first few minutes of this movie that will tell you all you need to hear about Final Examination.1) "Hugh Janus." The main plot of the movie is a cop (Brent Huff) being transferred to Hawaii as punishment (huh?) for reckless work. In the scene where he's being chewed out by his boss and informed of his transfer, a phone rings. His boss, Hugh Janus, picks it up and answers with his name. Only at this moment to I realize that, as an incredibly sophomoric and pointlessly tasteless jab at humor, he pronounces it 'huge a*us'. Flag 1 goes up.2) The shower scene.Meanwhile in Hawaii, a sorority is holding its 5-year reunion at a lovely, extra-expensive-looking hotel (complete with hula girls lounging idly as part of the scenery... I wonder if they get paid to do that...). The movie focuses on several of the girls, whom we meet as they arrive in clumps. Either we never learn their names or they are so forgettable that this is impossible.So after following a young couple around for a few minutes, during which they strike the viewer as depressingly irritating, we cut to a shower room with a lady about to take a shower. Now, I'm not a hoity toity person at all. I don't mind nudity in movies at all. But let me be frank here: this woman was supposed to be 22 in the movie, but from the gross sagging bags (and I don't mean under her eyes) and the lines on her face, I would place her at 35 or 40, at the YOUNGEST.So now let's have a shower scene with her rubbing herself in the shower as the camera pans up and down her, er, luscious frame. At first I'm tolerant, just waiting for it to end. By the third straight minute I'm getting uncomfortable. I wind up fast-forwarding, and estimate the whole scene was 10-14 minutes long.A beautiful girl for one or two minutes? I can deal with that. Heck, I can enjoy it. But an ugly old lady for fifteen minutes? If you're into that sort of thing, check out this movie. Flag number two went up about the time I started fast-forwarding.3) I yawn three times in the same minute.So we cut to a boring sex scene with the irritating couple I mentioned earlier. I didn't count this as a flag since it would be redundant after flag 2. Now to her credit, the girl in this scene has nicer breasts than the one in the previous one. But then the scene stretches on. And on. And on. And on. I fast forwarded here, too, and my estimate is also 14-20 minutes. Guy goes to get post-coital bottled water, girl lounges in the pool. Girl is killed. At this point I was so irritated with this girl and this movie that I cheered.Enter cop from the beginning, with a partner. A few conversations between the cops and the boyfriend, the owner of the hotel, and other girls in the sorority. The 'conversations' are actually hollow droning of insipid lines written by the same hack who had the brilliant idea to have these two 'detectives' wander around the hotel aimlessly, playing boring-cop/boring-cop with sorority girls, rather than split up to cover more ground.Right about the time I realize this, I also realize I just yawned three times in the same minute. Flag numero tres goes up, and I hit 'stop'. Well, so much for that.If you want a good movie out of Artisan Entertainment... you're out of luck, as it seems their only skill is promoting the worst directors on the market. If you must watch something from them, see "House of the Dead", directed by Uwe Boll. It's on my top ten list of "funny movies that were actually MEANT to be horror", along with "Jeepers Creepers". This one might have made that list, if it hadn't bored me to tears before I could get through the first twenty minutes.
MovieLuvaMatt
This is definitely no masterpiece, but it is halfway decent. Considering the fact that it looks like something you'd see on Showtime late at night, it is fairly well done. And the car chases are good for a film of its budget. The acting, on the other hand, is atrocious. The very pretty Kari Wuhrer is a good actress, but the rest of the cast seem to be delivering their lines in their sleep. Brent Huff, who plays the lead, is especially horrible. He's so stonefaced that he makes Vin Diesel look like a Shakesperean actor. Other than Kari, the women aren't terribly attractive, but they have nice bodies. It's basically softcore porn. Not all these types of actresses are beauty queens. As long as their bra sizes are at least C-cups, they qualify. But unlike most of these softcore movies, there is a storyline and it is semi-interesting. And that's what makes this film adequate entertainment. Plus, as a side note, there is a Jim Wynorski in-joke that should amuse B-movie fans. My score: 5 (out of 10)
j_taylor16
This movie is one of the worst films I have seen in several years. It fails on almost every level. First and foremost the plot is tremendously weak, uninspired and uninteresting. Though this movie clocks in at only 98 minutes it seems like an eternity and nothing really happens or even tries to grab the viewers attention. Its just painful to dredge through and frequently resorts to equally uninspired soft-core pornography as a simple means of keeping viewers from switching off the video. The acting is laughably sub-par and unprofessional (even for made-for-TV standards), actors seldom convey appropriate emotion or even motivation, even in events where characters are informed of their best friends deaths. Even if you find this movie at your local megastore's bargin bin (and you likely will) its still best to keep walking.
frankcris
This movie was terrible. My friend works at a video store and decided on a whim to pick this up. He didn't know anything about the movie but he assured me that it was a horror/thriller. Well he was wrong and I will never let him live it down. I can't even talk about the plot because we stopped watching it 40 minutes in. It took about a half an hour for both of us to realize that this movie was soft core porn. I think the minute long shower scene in which the girl doesn't even use soap or shampoo gave it away. I can't really say anything more because I didn't watch the entire movie. 2/10