Midnight in the Switchgrass review by Bobby Blakey
For years Bruce Willis has been taking on a ton of these straight to home video features. Sadly more often than not he is in a more cameo capacity, but his latest Midnight in the Switchgrass co-starring Megan Fox, Emile Hirsch, Lukas Haas and Colson Baker looks like a bigger role. Could this crime thriller be one that stands out for the once big action star or will it be a killer not worth stopping?
Midnight in the Switchgrass follows FBI agents Helter and Lombardo who cross paths with state cop Crawford while in Florida on another case, who’s investigating a string of female murders that appear to be related. Lombardo and Crawford team up for an undercover sting, but it goes horribly wrong, plunging Lombardo into grave danger and pitting Crawford against a serial killer in a twisted game of cat and mouse.
I knew nothing about this movie other than the cast and that I believe this is the movie that Fox and Colson Baker aka Machine Gun Kelly met. I was looking forward to their possible chemistry, but I am more surprised they connected at all from the way they work together on screen which is pretty flat. Thankfully it’s a small part of the film and honestly not the worst parts.
I was hoping from the premise that we might get a decent enough thriller of some sort, but instead we got a mess of a film that had potential and failed to meet it. There are two stories running at the same time that cross paths with one of them being actually really good and the other just a mess all around.
On one side you have Emile Hirsch’s Crawford who offers up a compelling story with all the makings of a good thriller. Even Lukas Haas brings a griping and uncomfortable performance and the two could have delivered something that stood out given the chance sadly it gets diluted and lost in the mess of the other
side. That side we have Fox and Willis together that is the most uneven duo I have seen in some time. Neither is really bringing anything to the table with Willis phoning it in once again and Fox delivering yet another uninspired performance.
I so wanted to like this movie, but there are so many things that just don’t make sense in relation to story direction and choices made overall. Coupled with these issues and the not so great performances you have a film that will leave you more baffled than intrigued. This is really sad because as I mentioned there is a good movie in there just not what we are given here.
Decide for yourself and check out Midnight in the Switchgrass available now on digital and then on Blu-ray and DVD on June 27th from Lionsgate Home Entertainment.