Send Help

Okay, so Sam Raimi is an interesting filmmaker. When you watch a movie directed by Sam, you can usually expect a few things. First, lots of blood and cartoonishly absurd violence, probably some weird animal faces that look like demons, Bruce Campbell lurking somewhere nearby, and some really morally complicated characters. (Unless you're Ash Williams, then you're morally correct. But that's another conversation.)

Send Help is very much a Sam Raimi movie. He's a guy who has the pull and drive to make the silliest, most fun movies you could possibly want, and people trust that he knows what he's doing and let him do it. Are they GOOD movies? I dunno. This one wasn't, really, but it was a FUN movie, and that counts for a lot. The gore is ridiculous, Rachel McAdams is fantastic, carrying this movie pretty much all by herself. Which is maybe a shitty thing to say consider that there were essentially two actors in this movie for 90% of it. The guy was fine. I don't know who he was, and his performance didn't leave much of an impression.

I believe that was by design. This was Rachel's show. She was clearly enjoying herself just a whole lot. She proves that she's fully capable of stepping into Bruce Campbell's job as Sam Raimi's blood-soaked hero.

Is this movie a biting piece of satire about capitalism and class warfare? No, not really. It could have been, and it seemed to be going through the motions of having something to say, but then it never really said anything. That's fine too. The movie doesn't owe me any meaning beyond what's on the screen, but I do give extra credit for having a point of view beyond just "wouldn't it be awesome if..."

Don't get me wrong, I like awesome stuff. And this movie had some awesome stuff in it. Sam Raimi has always had an incredibly creative visual storytelling style, and this is no exception. I respect it, and as I said, I don't have a problem with a filmmaker whose primary goal is to entertain first. That's a perfectly reasonable ambition. When you're Sam Raimi, you just gotta do what you do best, which is frenetic camera work and buckets of blood.

I did take issue with one scene that I felt was kind of ripped off from another movie. It's not a big deal, I just thought it was a bit lazy.

But otherwise, this was a fairly simple movie that works if you squint and try not to think about the logistics of anything that's happening, and if you don't mind having pretty much nobody to root for. If you go in like I did, wanting a bizarre gore fest with lots of crazy shit happening, then you'll be fine.

It would have been cool if they found a hatch with a Scottish guy inside pushing buttons, but oh well, missed opportunity.