Review of Stuck (2002) by Masorad ( — 19 Jul 2010

Stuart Gordon makes lots of strange choices with his films. I love his work, but Stuck was the strangest of his choices, to me anyway. I really didn't care for this one. I believe it's because I did lots of reading on the actual case, based on Chante Jawan Mallard, and figured th... read moreis movie would focus on most of the facts. I know Stuck is "loosely based" on the true story, and it is, but it stayed TOO far from the truth, AND in ways that were very silly. Yes, it's part "dark comedy", but not only are the jokes not funny, they weren't brutal enough for this to have the real meaning that it should've had. The scenes dragged for too long, like someone who tells 1 joke 8 different times, desperately trying to make you laugh for at least one of them. Or someone who brags for way too long, just so you can be convinced of their bullsh*t. These are the kind of movies that feel amateurish, in a bad way. The kind of movie that tries too hard at being smart by talking on, and on, and on. We get the point that the director has a good idea, so why does Stuart Gordon seem to push so hard for wittiness? All you have to do is get your point across once...maybe twice...move on to the next part of the film, and continue the story before the credits roll, and turns out to be a bad joke. He does right with most of his films, doesn't he get how to piece the puzzle together? But it's not always a good score in the business, and to make a great film EVERY single time, would be asking way too much. Stuart Gordon has proved many times he's no hack, so I guess he just had a bad day, OR maybe it's just me. Maybe since I figured I'd get some other grotesque gem from Gordon, I set the standards a little too high. I mean why not though? The true incident that it's based on is so ridiculously insane. That, and you put Stuart Gordon into the mix, you'd think you have a mega hit on your hands. The next cult smash! But what I got was something dull instead. Cheesy, in the bad way(failing to be silly and funny), and too repetitive in it's details. A tiny boo-boo for Stuart Gordon, I just hope the band-aid will come off soon.

Since it did start off good, and did have a few funny moments, with some twisted ideas(very few on display) I'll be generous and give it 2 and 1/2 stars. Wasn't the worse film by any means, but it also wasn't that good. Nice try though I guess. I just hope someone will tell the real story, in the proper way, sometime soon.