The Shaft (2003)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Written & Directed by Dick Maas
Starring James Marshall, Michael Ironside, Ron Perlman, Naomi Watts, Eric Thal, Edward Hermann, Dan Hedaya

Released by: Artisan
Region: 1
Rating: R
Anamorphic: Nope; presented in glorious full-frame.

My Advice: Rent Top Gun and The City of Lost Children instead.

The Shaft (aka Down) is a tale of government conspiracy, mad science, AIs gone amok, and randomized ways for an elevator to kill random strangers. One of the express elevators in New York’s Millennium Building has been the site of a number of mysterious deaths, including a couple of infants, a security guard, and others. A pair of elevator repairmen are called in on the job and find nothing seemingly wrong. One of these repairmen, however, is not convinced. He and a tabloid reporter start to put the pieces together and learn that the heart of the elevator is not just a bunch of gears and wires.

As exciting as "elevator repairman faces danger on the job" sounds, it’s just not well-played-out in the movie. Twin Peaks' James Marshall does his best as the mechanic and our erstwhile hero, but there’s only so much you can do. The plot holes are so plentiful here, such as a reporter who starts out wanting to be serious for about two seconds and then delves happily into tabloid mode, that I couldn’t mention just one. Oh wait, I just did. Anyway...there are, for example, questions about how the AI accretes biological matter from air, why anyone would keep this secret when they learned it, what the heck "that Polish mechanic" and his ghost (was there a ghost as hinted at by his widow? It was never clear.) had to do with anything, and why the elevator chose today to go mad. The real evil in this movie is the miasma of the script.

Another problem with this film is the acting. Not that it’s bad (though on the whole, it is), but that it could have been good. Two of the players are Ron Perlman and Michael Ironside--oh, how the mighty have fallen. Even poor Ironside can’t look tough with a goofy script like this one, and they have Perlman trying to be a one-dimensional bastard. Not cool, folks. This film is also, alas, the winner of the Most Unfortunate Reference to Terrorism award, when a character says something like "I heard they almost got the Twin Towers last year." Mind you, the film was probably shot in 2000, but still--five yard penalty, please.

There are no features, which is, I suppose, just as well. The film can't even be bothered to present itself in widescreen, and a featurette or two isn't going to save this thing.

Basically, if you really love horror movies, then check this one out for the brief glimpses of Ironside and Perlman. Otherwise, give it a pass; you’ll just sit there wishing you could see more of Ironside’s character, and you’ll only be disappointed by the rest.