Review of P2 (2007) by Chris M — 24 Jul 2008

Surprisingly effecting chiller with a tight story, hard hitting violence, and some nightmarish imagery. Sadly, it's not all peaches and cream. Wes Bentley, a good actor in his own right, feels horribly miscast here and fails to bring out any creepiness in his villlanous role. The character is already written as not being very threatening, so casting Bentley is a huge mistake. After having some likeability issues in the first half of the movie, Rachel Nichols becomes a likeable heroine after we've seen her go through some pretty intense stuff. There's some pieces of dialouge that are really just too much and there's a few sequences involving a tazer gun that had me on the floor from how silly it all was, besides the clever use of it by Nichols at the end of the film. An Elvis karaoke session was also unneeded.

When the movie is good, it's VERY good. You can feel the influence of producer/writer/French madman Alexandre Aja is many of the best scenes of the film. There's a little High Tension and Hills Have Eyes in here in terms of vicious violence and insane suspense and mood.

Even despite it's flaws, P2 still manages to thrill and deliver the goods, which is more than I can say for most films coming out these days. It's a good concept that is MOSTLY well executed. Give it a try and you might end up enjoying it.