Review of Horsemen (2009) by Xou X — 03 Aug 2009

Four Riders Of Apocalypse.

Honestly, I was interested in this film due to part that Zhang Ziyi was a part of it. Jonas Akerlund is a unknown director to me and his first film "Spun" has never met my eyes. I watched this not knowing what I was going in to. I believe it was better off that way.

The film follows police investigator Aiden(Dennis Quaid) who gets a case to solve ceremonial deaths that occur in the city. With clues spread out as "Come and See" and several biblical references, the killers are to be known as the 4 horsemen. After arresting one of them. Its up to him to solve the puzzle and fellow horsemen Kristen(Zhang Ziyi) would provide clues along the way. But will he do it to jeopordize his relationship with his son?

Dennis Quiad does his best to try and save this film despite being a cliche ridden character. But the efforts are not good enough to overwhelm this bloody mess. This is the first time since I heard Zhang Ziyi speaking english continuously. Shes getting better but I loved her performance more then her attempts at the english langauge. Besides the acting, the film is flimsy and just disturbing. It tries to be to subtle and finds more torture rigs then it tries to fix the story.

This film features the four horsemen who are supposingly bringers of the apocalypse. They turn out to be four emos whos dying for love. Honestly, the torture rigs and disturbing images including a glimpse of a video taping of the "sacrifice" is just to much. Unless it tries to be the next "Hostel" or "Saw". Despite its heavy negatives there are still some good written parts in it and the acting was superb. The ending was criticized but I felt it was the right way to end the movie.

This film puts thier standards on sick torture devices and religious nutbags that Dennis Quaid couldnt save it from being silly and unpleasent.

1.4/4.