Mark Roper's Darkest Hour
25 August 2005
You may easily see this one on the shelves these days, being that it has been advertised to look like a "Pirates of the Caribbean" knockoff as to give it at least limited appeal. If for some reason you are appealed to it, (which isn't unlikely when there's a seemingly generic good time involved, as well as the hot lead actress on the cover of the box)I beg that you forget about it. This is poorly made, laughably uninspired and (most surprisingly) boring garbage.

Mark Roper has shown talent as a trend-following director. In 1995 he made a wonderfully action-packed little movie for New Line called "Human Timebomb" that featured skillfully executed, John Woo inspired action sequences strung together with a campy but fun story line. He knows what action fans want, but now I'm not so sure he can give it to them.

Thomas Ian Griffith plays a dreadfully dull neo-pirate (in 2001 they still didn't have a more contemporary sounding occupation name than pirate?) who is really just a boring, unlikeable, degenerate every-tool who happens to steal stuff. The movie that surrounds him fits the same character descriptions. Roper has lost any feel he ever may have had for atmosphere: the set design is unquestionably bad, as is the sound and cinematography.

Don't be fooled, this one is bad no matter how much you should want to see it.
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