Watch Mummy An' the Armadillo For Free
Mummy An' the Armadillo
Secrets, murders and lies... all in the name of family. In the middle of nowhere sits the Armadillo Café.The once popular, but now desolate, café is run by a strange family led a troubled, booze-addled mother (Betty Buckley) and a disturbed family (Lori Heuring, Brad Renfro, Jonathon Schaech). Their dark secrets are threatened when Sarah (Clare Kramer) arrives, seeking answers to her past.Turmoil reigns and emotions boil over as the horrifying truth unravels and Sarah barely escapes with her life.
Release : | 2004 |
Rating : | 4.5 |
Studio : | Sandstorm Films, |
Crew : | Production Design, Set Decoration, |
Cast : | Betty Buckley Lori Heuring Clare Kramer Busy Philipps Brad Renfro |
Genre : | Drama Thriller |
Watch Trailer
Cast List
Related Movies
Reviews
Just perfect...
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
You can count the number of shots on one hand of this overlong trapped in one room with actors who either under or overact with an equal measure of indifference. The writing is dull and they can do nothing with it.Betty Buckley comes off the best as she has stage experience to put life into lifeless material like this, but another reason she comes off well is that she has the smallest part.This is really a dull small scale play shot in a way that is totally unimaginative. The plot's big twist was obvious to me from the start and the Armadillo story has little or nothing to do with what's going on. The story is loaded with back story none of which the film can afford to shoot but you also get the impression it never occurred to them to even try. The blocking of the actors is crappy and this would possibly be an even duller play than it is a film.Half baked Sam Shepard play is what this really is. Features a bad "retard" character that is probably the worst thing about it, but the worst thing is how boring it all is. J.S. Cardone does nothing to make this feel like a film. Being trapped in one room is no excuse for directing something this boringly. You can only call this a thriller if you consider a character being tied up in a chair for most of the time a thrill. Watching this film feels like a really terrible week on a soap opera. No edge, no convincing characters or situations, do not press play on this dud.
Another case of a stage play taken to the screen with no adaptation. There is a different dynamic for stage dialog versus movies, and it is painfully obvious as the characters deliver lines with no sense of pace. It comes off as a bunch of people just saying lines *at* one another. That's just one of the things that's wrong with this movie. What's worse is the loose, relatively incoherent plot. The simplistic relationship between the characters leads to a letdown when the final "dark secret" is revealed. The film tries for an intense, psychological edge; but the intensity never escalates beyond a bunch of people screaming and waving various weapons at one another, and the psychology never gets much beyond Psych 101.
I saw this movie at a film festival in Houston. Unfortunately, the only laudable aspect of this film was Brad Renfro's performance. Outside of his character and delivery, the movie came up short on its suspense, drama, depth, and ultimately, quality.Despite a cast of potentially capable actor and actresses, the storyline was so far-fetched that the people and situations were too much for even a mammoth-sized suspension of disbelief. One ridiculous, inexplicable scene after another left you asking if how on earth any one town could have so many utterly insane people walking around on a daily basis. Unintentionally, it was like a fast-paced and unnuanced David Lynch movie that had the cinematography of Dawson's Creek and the suspense of a Meg Ryan romantic comedy.
I had the chance to see this film at the Houston Film Festival. It took me for quite a ride which is what I love about it. It had me right from the opening credits. Johnathon Schaech has some incredibly eerie scenes and one-liners that will stick in my head for quite some time. The cast put in tremendous performances and I found it fascinating to see Clare Kramer in such a serious role that I wasn't used to seeing her in. She did a great job with it. The story is quite twisted and will surely have a cult following. As it unfolds, it gets more and more disturbing until it all comes together at the end with nice shocking twist. The top-notch production value, incredible acting and very twisted story make this a fantastic ride in my book and well worth seeing.