Feb 14 2011
Red Box Review— Edge of Darkness #Redbox
Edge of Darkness (2010– 117mins) Mel Gibson, R. Winstone 
It’s possible that the Mel Gibson that we all knew and loved in great amovies like The Patriot, Signs, Braveheart, and all things Lethal Weopon is a thing of the past. His idiotic behavior has likely shattered any further chance of getting good roles like those. Edge of Darkness is somewhat close to the detective actiony Mel from Ransom or Payback, but it falls real short. It lands only slightly better then Conspiracy Theory, which in itself was quite an annoying movie with it’s own conspiracy.
Gibson plays Craven, a detective in Boston who has decided to try and reconnect with his daughter. Upon her visit she is murdered in his arms with Craven having no clues as to why. He then ust try and piece together what he can of it all and find her killers. It tries to be a detectivey story, but it ends up throwing a bit of revenge flick ideas to it. However, it really never gets that whole Payback vibe to it. And it’s awfully hard to get over that god-aweful Bahhhstton accent Mel is trying to pull off. I think the directors, after one day of filming, should have made up some way in the story so Mel didn’t have to fake such a bad accent.
The movie is an “OK” watch but it suffers from erratic pacing and a crazy-complicated back story for the conflict. They throw so many theories of why so and so did such and such, and speed it up and slow it down so much that you cannot settle into the story and enjoy it. It seems like a cheezy role to try and get some more love for Mel and it falls too flat.
Verdict—> It’s a mediocre Mel Gibson movie that tries for the “man with nothing left to lose” vibe but falls real flat to being a movie that is just trying to get Mel back into movie lovers good graces. Sorry Mel, it’s only avg at best. It’s worth a 1$ rental but not worth overlooking other movies to get. If nothing else is there then fine go for it, but make sure it’s a double feature b/c by itself it will leave you unimpressed. But coupled with a comedy or rom-com then you might be able to get thru it. Not bad not great.
