Call me an optimist, but I went into writer/director Eli Roth ’s Borderlands hoping for a good time – and thusly ignoring its full assortment of red flags. I’ve seen a number of passable movies that underwent significant reshoots in post-production and/or sat on the shelf for an extended period, and not every film that doesn’t screen widely for critics should be instantly dismissed. There’s a talented ensemble put together on the screen, and while I can’t say that I am a fan of/familiar with the video game, I enjoyed the general vibe of the trailers.
Release Date: August 9, 2024 Directed By: Eli Roth Written By: Eli Roth and Joe Crombie Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Edgar Ramírez, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Gina Gershon, and Jamie Lee Curtis Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, language and some suggestive material Runtime: 102 minutes As it turns out, you can not only call be an optimist, but also foolishly naïve. All of those red flags were wildly waving for a reason: Borderlands is a really bad movie. It’s a weird thing to be bashed over the head with constant exposition while failing to get a comprehensive idea of the world that is being established, and the only thing that ends up being more undeveloped than the story is the ensemble of characters – none of whom can even be called two-dimensional because that would be giving them too much credit.
Its sensibilities are juvenile, its aesthetics are pl.