THE BASEMENT (2009)

[indianasmith]

I never intended to watch this movie.  Really.
I was at Hasting's yesterday and grabbed what I thought was a copy of ZOMBIE DIARIES 2.  But when I got home, instead I had a plain silver DVD with a plain title THE BASEMENT on it.  I was in a mood for a horror flick and thought I might enjoy something totally unexpected, so I put it in and pressed play.
Big mistake.

What followed was the absolue waste of an hour of my life (it would have been an hour and a half, but I fast forwarded through all the scenes where no one was talking and nothing was happening.  Does that tell you something?).

I will provide a brief synopsis here, with major spoilers - except nothing could possibly spoil a film this bad.  I'm trying to save you guys, OK?

An Arab named Tarek picks up a girl from some terrorist looking character who apparently gets people out of some war torn middle eastern country - probably Iraq.  the Transporter is very ticked at Turek and threatens to kill him because apparently one of his men got killed getting the girl out of the country.  Once the evil guy peels out, Tarek kisses his girl (OK, the Transporter dude calls her Tarek's sister, but Tarek says later she is his girlfriend - not sure which she was supposed to be, but if she's his sister this guy is very, very sick!) and tells her to climb into the trunk of his car till he can get her away to safety.  Tarek's erratic driving attracts the attention of an off duty cop named Gabriel, who tries to pull him over.  Tarek abandons the car and flees into a deserted factory, where Gabriel chases him and eventually corners him in a basement and knocks him out.  But then Gabriel realizes that when he slammed the basement door behind them to keep Tarek from escaping, it locked.  They are underground, in an abandoned building, locked in a basement with a huge, solid steel door holding them in. Trapped.
And that's the movie, pretty much.  They cuss at each other, they refuse to trust each other, and eventually . . . .  (OK, read on if you really want to know.  If you ever plan on seeing this monstrosity, read no further.)













THEY BOTH DIE!!!!
Gabriel dies of an asthma attack, brought on by his attempting to steal his gun back from Tarek while they are both trying to pry the door open. And Tarek decides to use the police .38 to shoot through the lock, and is killed when the bullet ricochets and goes through his stomach, leaving him to bleed to death.

And his girl is still locked in the trunk of his car when the movie ends.

REALLY?????

A total downer of an ending to two characters that frankly were not sympathetic enough to care about.  Some atrocious dialog.  Very little explanation.  Lordy, this was one steaming shovelful of cinematic excrescence, made even worse by the fact that the Director/Writer Robert Franke obviously thought he was making a meaningful, relevant film.

Tomorrow I am going to Hasting's and tell them they gave me the wrong movie.

[JPickettIII]

If this is the same movie:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1486823/

It got pretty low scores.  I don't blame you for fast forwarding.   

I might avoid this one.

Later,

John

[indianasmith]

That's it!  Commence evasive action!

[claws]

Sounds awful. This one might be better:



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2005367/

At least it got a higher score than the 2009 Basement 

[indianasmith]

That one I would watch for the cover art alone!!!

[JPickettIII]

Sounds awful. This one might be better:



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2005367/

At least it got a higher score than the 2009 Basement 

I would watch this based on the cover art too.

Later,

John

[Joe]

I just picked up the Camp releasing of "The Basement." It comes in a big box with a VHS copy as well as DVD! That was worth the 25 dollars for me.The movie is mildly entertaining, the fact that it is a "lost film" is kind of neat for asthetic value. I'm pretty sure they lost all of the original audio and dubbed a whole new track for the release.