Movie Review - "Private Number" 07/17/14 USA Limited

This is a movie review for "Private Number", which had a limited release on July 17, 2014 and was "officially" released to the Internet May 1, 2015. Purchased this at Dollar Tree for $1. I love bargain things, especially if they are decent! ^.^

Trailer:

Cast:

Judd Nelson ("The Breakfast Club" (1985) John Bender, "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" (2001) Sheriff)            -              Sheriff Stance
Tom Sizemore ("Saving Private Ryan" (1998) Sergeant Horvath, "Pearl Harbor" (2001) Sgt. Earl Sistern)            -               Jeff
Nicholle Tom ("Beethoven" (1992)/"Beethoven's 2nd" (1993) Ryce Newton, "Panic" (2000) Tracy)        -        Katherine Lane
Hal Ozsan ("Dawson's Creek" (TV Series, 2001-2003) Todd Carr, "Groupie" (2010) Travis Bellamy)         -             Michael Lane

Plot:

As a recovering alcoholic and a writer dealing with writer's block, Michael Lane would love to simply get the manuscript done and sent off. However, his wife Katherine wants more than that. She has recently opened a boutique, which allows Michael to stay at home and write. She also tells him that she would love to have his child. Between the urge to drink, the stress trying to get through the writing of the manuscript (having previously written a best-seller as his first novel), social stress between himself and the neighbor as well as between himself and their friends, Michael is struggling. The plot thickens when phone calls start coming in to the house at odd hours in the night. The caller only says one line: "Remember me?". The phone calls continuously ring at home night after night, but is there a reason why they are calling Michael? Was their house previously a site of a murder or could it be larger than that?

Criteria:

0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.

1/5 – Barely worth any time.

2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.

3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.

4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.

5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.

4.5/5 - This isn't on my "must be a 5 star" list, but it is darn near. I did not expect what the outcome was. It was not as predictable as I thought it would be.

The intrigue of this movie and the fact that the main character was trying to solve a mystery was very interesting to me. I definitely was engrossed in this movie. I think I paused it once to answer my phone, and I kept the conversation short so I could get back to the movie.

The special effects are pretty awesome. There is one scene where a burn victim is burning his kitchen up. He doesn't really have much of a reaction so it probably was more like a psychotic/ghost episode, but the flame effects were pretty awesome looking. Well done, if I may say so!

What could be used to make it better? Honestly, less alcohol. Not all writers are alcoholics. That seemed like a huge thing for the movie. His "hallucinations" that he used to have with alcohol started to happen when he was a year sober, so is the alcohol really the cause of the hallucinations?

This is fun to watch [especially for writers to watch the psyche of a writer break]. Recommended? Yes. I will hold on to this, especially since it only costed me $1! Definitely one of the "writer occupation" movies that I would love to recommend; however, be warned that it is a "horror" and has some scary (yet awesome) stuff.




~ yume