Review of Horsemen (2009) by Jason D — 13 Jul 2009

In The Horsemen, Dennis Quaid plays a recently widowed detective who has been so engrossed in his work, he has paid very little attention to his two sons. Before he can try and connect with them, a major case pops up involving murders surrounding biblical mysteries, namely the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Quaid and partner Stingray (Clifton Collins Jr. in a decent role) try to solve the mystery, which involves 4 crafty killers playing the 4 Horsemen roles who are working to provide 4 dead bodies. After viewing the film, I'm surprised it got such a bad rap, because the story is interesting, the acting is solid, and the direction/overall look of the film is very nice and expected from director Jonas Ã?kerlund (whose Spun movie and music video credits also possess this same sort of darkness and somber feel).

In the end, I wound up thinking this film was much better than the rap it is getting. The death scenes were nicely done, and punched up with a decent amount of gore/blood effects. Quaid and his kids, specifically Lou Taylor Pucci (Carriers), provide very good lead roles.

As far as the supporting cast goes, the beautiful Ziyi Zhang (House of the Flying Daggers) plays against type and gives us a chilling and very different performance than we're used to seeing her in, however, Peter Stormare (Constantine), Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous), and Eric Balfour (Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake) are all grossly underused.

I would have loved to see their roles fleshed out more. Also, the ending wound up being very predictable, but what was NOT predictable is the quickly wrapped up ending. The Horsemen is not a perfect movie by any means, but still, this film is much better than it is being portrayed.