Midnight in the Switchgrass
LionsgateNames attract audiences. Why else would a moviegoer head towards Midnight in the Switchgrass? This action thriller from director Randall Emmett has all the right set pieces to appeal to the modern movie-going audience. Serial killer appeals, big names like Megan Fox and Emile Hirsch, and a producer-turned-director whose name has been attached to such projects as Mile 22 and Gotti. Perhaps that was a sign of where Midnight in the Switchgrass was headed...
Anywhere but up is where Emmett is taking this feature. From the opening seconds of narration and drone shots of empty roads, Midnight in the Switchgrass feels off. There is an uncomfortable detachment that marks it out as a film trying so desperately difficult to connect with a broad target audience. Its slow panning shots reveal horrible clues that linger on the mind of any good murder mystery, but this is not a good murder mystery. Instead, this is a Bruce Willis vehicle. As if there weren’t enough of those. This one has a dependable quality found not just in its ensemble cast, but in a debut director who surely knows what will work for his feature, and why it will impact his plot.
At least the unknowable supporting performers offer decent work. They are the glue desperately attempting to hold this one together. They can sell the horror so well, but Emmett is a tease and does not show the thrills for all that long. His quick-cut editing style and focus on flashing sirens and camera shutters is an annoyance, but an artistic choice that simply fails to impress. It is better to be bold and try something new than to linger on the same few notes over and over, and at least Midnight in the Switchgrass has those shots and scenes that try something new.
With six more features in the firing line, it is safe to assume Willis has cracked. The man is a genius. He has worked hard to make a dependable, identifiable name for himself, and he is riding that cash cow to the ends of his career. Good on him. If it means his audiences will have to sit through features like Midnight in the Switchgrass, then more fool them. He has cracked the code to a financially successful series of twilight-year features, and it is the folly of audiences who wish to see him in more movies that are keeping his dream of easy, knock-off action film fillers alive.
Midnight in the Switchgrass is a dependable uptick in quality for Willis’ recent efforts, but we are still miles away from the days of Die Hard and The Fifth Element. He shall never hit those highs again. Like Icarus, he flew too close to the sun, although Icarus never had to appear in budget action flicks with Lukas Haas.