Review of Unknown (2015) by Ben S — 06 Sep 2011

It's a pretty good film. I did enjoy watching it, and trying to figure everything out. But, now that I know everything, I just don't think I'll ever have the desire to watch it again. Unless I'm going to be watching it with someone who hasn't seen it. That's about it. The film is in the same vein as "Reservoir Dogs", in the fact that its a group of men in one central location, who all don't trust each other. Granted, the dialogue and events of this film pale in comparison to those of "Reservoir Dogs".

It opens with Jim Caviezel waking up in the middle of a storage room, he looks around and sees other men, all passed out. There's lots of blood and weapons lying around. Over time, all of the men wake up, and everyone has amnesia, due to a container of some gas which has busted open. The film follows the men, as they all begin to regain their memories and piece together what happened to bring them all together. Some are good, some are bad, and we (as the audience) go along with the characters as they remember things.

Honestly, I believe the storyline would have been better served as a one hour television script for some crime drama. Because, while we watch the men in the warehouse - we also follow the cops who are working with the wife of one of the men, who pays the ransom for her husband. We see from their angle, as they pursue the criminals and attempt to track them down. But, there's a lot of things in the film that probably could have been scaled back or removed to make the pace a lot quicker. The film takes a while to get you involved. Probably ten minutes, or so - it's basically the polar opposite of "Brick". Once the film gets going, it is pretty well paced, despite the things that I feel could be cut.