Dark Country

tn_darkcountry Over on the Ain’t It Cool News I have what I believe to be the first review anywhere of DARK COUNTRY, directed by and starring Thomas Jane. Most of it takes place at night but I thought I would use the thumbnail on the left because I thought he looked kind of like Steve McQueen there. Also this is the beginning of the movie when he’s leaving for his honeymoon with his new wife, so I use this picture to symbolize Tom Jane beginning his new life as a director. One of the cups is for him and one is for directing. I’m sure you understood that without me explaining it though.

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Tags: Lauren German, Ron Perlman, Thomas Jane

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 12:49 am and is filed under Reviews, Thriller. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

23 Responses to “Dark Country”

GoodBadGroovy
August 26th, 2009 at 5:28 am

Thanks Vern, probably wouldn’t have heard about this without your review. It sounds a bit like Edgar Ulmer’s 1945 film ‘Detour’. Tiny budget, mostly just two actors, a lot of film spent in cars. You should definatly check it out if you get chance, great example of low budget b-movie noir that is far better than you’d think its budget would allow.

Will try and get hold of Dark Country in whatever decade it gets around to the UK. Have you heard about “Give ‘em Hell, Malone”?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1258137/

Seems like Jane really is into the pulpy/noir style films, hopefully he carries on making films in that mold.
Stu
August 26th, 2009 at 5:59 am

Sounds good. I’ve been meaning to ask, but none of the recent reviews seemed like a good seque way, but did you see MOON when it was out, Vern? From the sound of it, this film has a few things in common. Moon’s also got a twist you can figure out before the reveal, but it actually comes out with it pretty early on and deals with the consequences of it. Rockwell’s character*SPOILER*(s)*END SPOILER*’s in the dark about something too, and it gets to them and makes them paranoid. It’s also fairly low budget, and is mostly practical-effects driven rather than CGI. You can tell it’s models they’re using for the exterior shots, and it’s fine. The score’s also very low key and just creates the sense of things being a bit eerie and desolate.
a
August 26th, 2009 at 6:14 am

drunk as i get, i have never woken up married to lauren german. who can i complain to about this.
Dan Prestwich
August 26th, 2009 at 6:58 am

Nice call on DETOUR, GoodBadGroovy. It’s not just that DETOUR is better than you think the budget would allow, it’s that the low budget actually improves the film. It’s the cheap footage, the poor quality of the prints, the sometimes stilted acting, the logical flaws and the weird mistakes and errors that give the movie such a unique, gritty quality to it. And not in a “so bad it’s good” way, rather in a way that fits and benefit the film.

Given that you enjoy crime movies a lot, Vern, is there any chance we could see you review some old film noirs? (Films noir?) DETOUR would be a great place to start, I think you might enjoy its aesthetic and its underdog charm.
GoodBadGroovy
August 26th, 2009 at 8:43 am

Dan-

film noir, films noir, film noirs and films noirs(?) are apparantly all fine ways of pluralising it according to this book i read for my dissertation. Though personally i go with films noir.

And I completely agree about the budget improving the film. I love the scenes in NY that are just smoke filled streets to hide the fact they obviously couldn’t film anything that looked convincingly like NY. But it adds so much, creating this dream like quality, or linking to the idea of his memories being faded – he remembers the conversation but the rest is foggy etc.

Great film. Along with Scarlet Street and Double Indemnity it’s my favourite noir.
Dan Prestwich
August 26th, 2009 at 9:46 am

I recall enjoying SCARLET STREET, but not thinking it was one of the better Lang films I had seen. Perhaps I should give it another chance.

And if we’re talking favorites, I’d like to submit OUT OF THE PAST and THE MALTESE FALCON.
Vern
August 26th, 2009 at 10:41 am

Stu – did I not post a review of Moon? I know I was working on one in one of my notebooks here. I’ll find it.
telf
August 26th, 2009 at 12:50 pm

Dan – In the UK Out Of The Past is called Build My Gallows High – which is perhaps a unique instance where both the US and International titles are equally awesome.
Dan Prestwich
August 26th, 2009 at 1:07 pm

telf,

I think I knew that BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH was the name of the story it was based on, and Mitchum even says the line in the movie, but I didn’t know that it was the UK title. BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH might even be a cooler title in a lot of ways, but there’s something about the iconicness of the title OUT OF THE PAST that fits perfectly. It sounds mysterious and timeless, something you could imagine is an all time classic. BMGH sounds more like a cult classic or lost treasure.

If that makes any sense.
telf
August 26th, 2009 at 2:41 pm

Yeah, if I had to choose I’d go with Out Of The Past – so evocative and mythic.
When we studied it at Uni we had a very pretentious lecturer introduce it as THE noir. She said that when any true noir expert hears the title Out Of The Past, they would/should exclaim “Now, that’s Noir!”. So we settled in to watch it in the lecture/screening room, and there was a protracted segment of black before the film began. To which my mate John declared: “Now, that’s NOIR!” – pretty much reducing us all to tears.

Guess you had to be there. Ultimately she was right though – it’s some serious noir.
Mr. Subtlety
August 26th, 2009 at 3:13 pm

Hey what gives? Shouldn’t this title already be reserved for the subtitle of UNDER SIEGE 3?

Thanks for the review, Vern. Wouldn’t have heard about this thing but now Im really looking forward to seeing it. Guess Tom Jane finally gave up on Hollywood finding him any good roles and just decided to make some himself. Are you paying attention, Henry Rollins?
dan
August 26th, 2009 at 3:40 pm

thanks for the heads up on this one. sounds almost like a Coen Bros. i’ll hunt it down. Tom Jane is pretty underrated sometimes.
Stu
August 26th, 2009 at 3:43 pm

Vern-I was wondering if you did, and I just skipped it because it hadn’t came out here yet and I was avoiding spoilers, but there’s nothing on it under Science Fiction and Space Shit.
telf
August 26th, 2009 at 4:09 pm

Mr. S – Rollins has a cool role in the new series of Sons of Anarchy – worth watching out for.
Mr. Subtlety
August 26th, 2009 at 5:03 pm

telf — yeah I saw some trailers with him in it. Ron Perlman vs Henry Rollins? Fuckin A. Guess I’ll have to watch.

Have you seen The Henry Rollins Show? Its on sporatically but its kind of freakin amazing.
M. Casey
August 26th, 2009 at 5:46 pm

Noir (anti)heroes = the original movie badasses
telf
August 26th, 2009 at 9:46 pm

Yeah – I love it. He’s a really good interviewer, and I love his “Letters to…”. I met him a couple of years ago at a Ramones thing and it was one of the few times I’ve been genuinely star-struck. A friend of mine is working on SOA and had nothing but praise for Henry. If you can (or haven’t already) try and track down the biography “Turned On” – it’s excellent.
Tuukka
August 27th, 2009 at 8:39 am

Can someone tell me why Lauren German isn’t getting more roles?

Say what you want about Hostel 2, but she really did make me pay attention in that film: Gorgeus, cool, classy, excellent actress, and had a commanding screen presence. She’s a kind of gal whom both girls and boys can admire. I completely expected her to start headlining lower-budget horror movies at least, because the girl was BORN to be a star in movies like that, but nothing happened.

I guess because Hostel 2 flopped, studios around Hollywood thought it was somehow mystically German’s fault.

Well, at least Thomas Jane was smart enough to see something in her.

This films sounds great and right up my alley. Thanks for the heads-up, Vern!
Mr. Majestyk
August 27th, 2009 at 9:01 am

I actually thought Hostel 2 was way better than the first one, and German definitely had something to do with that. She was a much stronger central presence than Whatshisdick from Hostel 1. I also think the second one is better because it has more of a classy giallo feel than a twitchy J-horror feel. And that shit with the beeper like you get at TGIFridays was fucking brilliant. Fuck it, I like Eli Roth. I think he’s got a horror classic in him somewhere.
Dan Prestwich
August 27th, 2009 at 1:13 pm

Ditto that HOSTEL PART 2 is an improvement on the original. Not only does it excise a lot of the tiresome fratboy humor from the original, it also cleverly plays with the audience’s expectations and, in the finale, I think it makes a statement about the uses of violence in horror movies and tries to rebuke critics for labeling it torture porn.

Also, German is cute and way more tolerable than that fucking “king of the swing” guy from the original.
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Tom Caniglia
September 27th, 2011 at 4:48 am

When Lost Highway first came out and I saw the poster I anticipated a movie that is exactly what Dark Country is. Of course, lost highway is nothing like that but it was weird to see my wrong assumption actually exist in movie form.

Lauren German is amazing. Loved her in Hostel 2.
That spam post from “protein” right over mine annoys me disproportionately.
Caoimhín
September 27th, 2011 at 6:40 am

I watched this last night and was thinking it was kind of like Lost Highway if that had actually stuck to being on the highway. They’re not the most dissimilar films ever.