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| REMARKABLE POWER |
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| Featuring: Kevin Nealon, Evan Peters, Nora Zehetner, Tom Arnold, Jack Plotnik, Whitney Able |
| Director: Brandon Beckner |
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Distributor: MTI Home Video |
| DVD release: 16 February 2010 |
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Runtime: 91 minutes
(1 disc) |
| Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Surround Sound, Widescreen |
DVD features: Aspect ratio 1.77:1, Audio (English - Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround), Subtitles (Spanish), Filmmakers' commentary, Deleted scenes, Trailer
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 Director Brandon Beckner brings us an interesting story that's somewhat difficult to describe. First off, we've got private investigator Van Hagen (Tom Arnold) taping an illicit affair, and Athena (Nora Zehetner), who has discovered a market for pictures of dead people. These two get together when their interests cross paths.
Athena gets a snap of Preston (Kip Pardue), a Z-list actor who turns up dead after a get-together with know-nothing stoner Ross (Evan Peters). Ross tries to do the right thing by notifying the police, but by the time they come around, the body has disappeared. Ross has stumbled into a lifestyle just like he's been promised in his Remarkable PowerŪ motivational tapes, shilled by JP Zahn (Christopher Titus) and guest-starring Preston as a guy who's really made it.
Much of the mystery of of the vanishing body is uncovered by Hagen and Athena (though there's a bit of exposition with lasers that doesn't quite jive). It's complicated, but we can feel that all the story threads are going to come together in the end - alhough one thread involving waning talk show host Jack West (Kevin Nealon) stubbornly resists approaching the knot until the end. The result is somewhat uneven, but not without merit.
The film could have been helped in the editing room. Some polishing up could have made Remarkable Power a bit more attractive, maybe even gotten it a theatrical release. Perhaps a couple of convolutions and characters could have been traded for more full-bodied characters. In the end, I just didn't really care that much about any of these people and how they came out in the end.
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