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Crawlspace, 2022
Robert (Henry Thomas) is an out--of-work plumber who is called out to do a job on a remote home in the woods. Needing the money, Robert agrees and heads out to the isolated house. But while Robert is in the crawlspace under the house, he witnesses the homeowner being murdered by Sterling (Bradley Stryker) and Dooley (C. Ernst Hath) and realizes that a duffel bag full of cash in the crawlspace is what they are after.
This is a mediocre action-thriller, albeit one with a game cast.
There are few things as vicariously embarrassing as watching a movie attempt to generate a buzzy catchphrase. Many times during this movie, one character will ask another, “Who is he?” in reference to Robert, to which the other person replies, “He’s the plumber.” It’s not exactly Liam Neeson’s infamous “set of skills,” and these moments only serve to amplify the gap between what this movie is and the kind of flick it wants to be.
For the most part, this movie spins its wheels. Robert tries some way to escape the crawlspace, gets into a confrontation with the killers, and manages to fend them off. Over and over. Now, while it’s true that I’ve never had to get a human person out of a crawlspace under my home, there were so many times that I felt just a little baffled at how hard two full grown adults were finding it to extricate a single wounded individual.
And while Robert undergoes his ordeal, his wife, Carrie (Olivia Taylor Dudley) finds herself teaming up with local police officer Jordan (Jennifer Robertson) and FBI investigator Helen (Catherine Lough Haggquist) to discover how Carrie’s company is connected to someone poaching trees in the local old growth forest. Robertson in particular has some of the best line deliveries in the movie, with her take on a very midwest-nice accent.
I was probably most charmed by the chemistry and humor between the women as they try and follow the money----we know where the money has ended up!---using a mix of accounting skills, interrogation skills, and good old fashioned legwork. What few surprises that are to be had in this film come from their investigation, as all the while we know that someone must be crooked . . . but who?
What most lacks here are any great action sequences, and this is where you really feel the budget of the movie. There is some decent gore resulting from the skirmishes between Robert and the bad guys, but nothing truly memorable or super well staged.
A time-passer, but ultimately forgettable.
Crawlspace, 2022
Robert (Henry Thomas) is an out--of-work plumber who is called out to do a job on a remote home in the woods. Needing the money, Robert agrees and heads out to the isolated house. But while Robert is in the crawlspace under the house, he witnesses the homeowner being murdered by Sterling (Bradley Stryker) and Dooley (C. Ernst Hath) and realizes that a duffel bag full of cash in the crawlspace is what they are after.
This is a mediocre action-thriller, albeit one with a game cast.
There are few things as vicariously embarrassing as watching a movie attempt to generate a buzzy catchphrase. Many times during this movie, one character will ask another, “Who is he?” in reference to Robert, to which the other person replies, “He’s the plumber.” It’s not exactly Liam Neeson’s infamous “set of skills,” and these moments only serve to amplify the gap between what this movie is and the kind of flick it wants to be.
For the most part, this movie spins its wheels. Robert tries some way to escape the crawlspace, gets into a confrontation with the killers, and manages to fend them off. Over and over. Now, while it’s true that I’ve never had to get a human person out of a crawlspace under my home, there were so many times that I felt just a little baffled at how hard two full grown adults were finding it to extricate a single wounded individual.
And while Robert undergoes his ordeal, his wife, Carrie (Olivia Taylor Dudley) finds herself teaming up with local police officer Jordan (Jennifer Robertson) and FBI investigator Helen (Catherine Lough Haggquist) to discover how Carrie’s company is connected to someone poaching trees in the local old growth forest. Robertson in particular has some of the best line deliveries in the movie, with her take on a very midwest-nice accent.
I was probably most charmed by the chemistry and humor between the women as they try and follow the money----we know where the money has ended up!---using a mix of accounting skills, interrogation skills, and good old fashioned legwork. What few surprises that are to be had in this film come from their investigation, as all the while we know that someone must be crooked . . . but who?
What most lacks here are any great action sequences, and this is where you really feel the budget of the movie. There is some decent gore resulting from the skirmishes between Robert and the bad guys, but nothing truly memorable or super well staged.
A time-passer, but ultimately forgettable.