CRUSH DVD (2013)




SYNOPSIS: High school heartthrob Scott has is all; good looks, popularity... and a secret admirer. But what starts out as a seemingly innocent crush soon turns deadly. Who's responsible? Scott's long time friend Jules, frustrated with their platonic relationship? Bess, a shy classmate, increasingly jealous of his friendship with Jules? Or Jeffrey, a bright outcast whose crush on Bess has lead him to become increasingly obsessive? One thing's certain, time's running out and Scott must uncover the psychotic stalker before it's too late.

MOVIE REVIEW:

After a shocking prologue, the rest is basically Fatal Attraction meets Misery in this teen-centric thriller, Crush.

X-Men: First Class star Lucas Till plays high school student, Scott. He is attractive, athletic and has no lack of suitors. When an introvert fellow classmate, Bess (Crystal Reed) starts to troll Scott’s facebook, strange things begin to happen around Scott as well. First beginning with his girlfriend’s house being vandalised then his former English teacher also met with a freak incident. Is Bess the culprit or is there somebody else lurking behind Scott?

This is a PG13 standard tale of secret admirer turns wrong. While other similar teen thrillers are peppered with body count, violence and nudity, Crush is satisfied in flashing out several close-up shots of Scott’s abs and exploring the theme of obsession to the extent of having another fellow classmate, Jeffrey being very much in love with Bess. Writer Sony Mallhi who also wrote the similar themed The Roommate attempts to play out the confusion and guessing game by introducing numerous suspicious characters into the mix. But ironically Mallhi’s script is riddled with plenty of coincidences and bland happenings especially repetitive scenes of Scott running down the street that once the true culprit is revealed after the first hour, you probably going to let out a meh.

Fortunately, Crush is blessed with a talented and good looking cast to hold your attention. Crystal Reed is a fine looking lass and she convincingly portrays an awkward, quiet girl whom no one will notice in school. Sarah Bolger who plays Scott’s girlfriend Jules is easy on the eyes so is Bess’ fellow co-worker, Andie (Caitriona Balfe).

Technically, the cinematography and editing is fairly well executed for a low-budget thriller though obviously because of budget constraints, the entire movie never consist of more than five locations. Done in the mould of more mature psychological thrillers, Crush is baby step for those who prefer to step away from the thriller genre, make no mistake, this one is tailor made for this demographics. No worries, there’s no rabbits stew here. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Visually, Crush looks fantastic and sharp on DVD while the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is serviceable for a movie that doesn’t relies on loud, bombastic effects.

MOVIE RATING:



DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee



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 ABOUT THE MOVIE

Genre: Thriller
Starring: Lucas Till, Crystal Reed, Sarah Bolger, Caitriona Balfe, Reid Ewing, Michael Landes, Leigh Whannell
Director: Malik Bader
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence and Coarse Language)
Year Made: 2013

 SPECIAL FEATURES

- NIL

 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Languages: English
Subtitles: English/Chinese
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0
Running Time: 1 hr 34 mins
Region Code: 3
Distributor: InnoForm Media