Watch Catch Hell For Free

Sick Product of a Sick System

People are voting emotionally.

I wanted to but couldn't!

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Ryan Phillippe directs and stars in Catch Hell the story of a film star on the downward slope of his career getting kidnapped by a pair of rednecks. One of them is Ian Barford who has a psychotic personality and a grudge against Phillippe for having a quickie with his wife. Poor Ryan he just can't remember who it was. Turns out she was a wardrobe girl on the set of one of his films. Barford and his nephew Stephen Louis Grush who's just a follower type drive off with him from his hotel in Shreveport, Louisiana and take him to a secluded cabin in the bayous.Of course Barford wants to kill him, but he also wants to humiliate him as well so he gets Phillippe to cough up his computer and Twitter passwords and he starts posting all kinds of noxious material, the kind that has ruined the reputations of folks like Charlie Sheen and Mel Gibson. No doubt Ryan Phillippe was going for a gay audience as well because of Grush's character. Throughout the film he's giving the look of love to Phillippe as he's a most closeted gay man. Life throws Grush a real nasty curve however. It gets good and homoerotic with Phillippe and Grush.I wish Phillippe had picked some better material for a directorial debut. But the man does show some promise there.

I wasn't too sure what to make of this when I first read up on it however, after watching it I was really surprised. The story line was really good, so was the acting. Maybe my expectations of the film were quite low as I hadn't heard much talk about it. So when I actually watched it, it exceeded the low expectations I had.This movie keeps you gripped all the way through and has some twists and turns you weren't expecting which is great in any movie!I'm no movie critic but in my opinion, this film is well worth a watch. Not the best kidnap film ever made, equally, it's still a good film with a strong story line and one I would recommend.

Ryan Phillipe's career goes down the toilet even further in this action thriller which he directed, wrote and stars in. It's more sad than embarrassing. Playing a somewhat autobiographical character, Phillipe stars as a down-and-out Hollywood star. He's seen better days, and is now set to star in a low budget thriller filming in Louisiana. There, he's kidnapped by a couple of rednecks who want revenge. Ever the cad (though he wants to stop being one), Phillipe banged one of their wives. They take him to a remote cabin in the bayou and torture him. Before killing him, they want to ruin his reputation by taking over his Twitter account and posting anti-Semitic rants. When the cuckold leaves his buddy to guard Phillipe, of course he turns out to be a closet homosexual who wants to rape Phillipe. The whole thing comes off as a weird fantasy of some way Ryan Phillipe could once again become noteworthy. It must really hurt that his more talented ex-wife is getting the reviews of her life

Independent films aren't what they used to be. They rarely get much play. These smallish, low budget niche films famously launched newcomers and gave opportunity for more experienced performers to take risks, doing something new. At the same time the venue often times created films far more interesting than what the studios were financing. With the occasional exception, those days are all but gone. Catch Hell is one of those exceptions. Written, produced, directed, starring, and promoted by Ryan Phillippe along with his partners, this is the little film that could. It rests on the shoulders of mostly unknown performers who give it their all and show the depth of talent that's available should the big film makers only take notice. Catch Hell is part horror, a little bit thriller, and most parts character study. It tells the story of a man who shares Ryan's initials and POV, an actor who is kidnapped while on rather remote location for a film he's been forced to sign onto because of a fading career. Mike, the older of the two kidnappers, believes the actor had an affair with his wife and has enlisted his passive yet young and strong nephew to help kidnap and torture Reagan Pierce.Reagan is taken to a shack in the swamps of Louisiana, violently beaten, chained and held captive. Not just satisfied with maiming him, his captors use his phone and laptop to start posting homophobic rants in his name. He suffers several more beatings and is starved. The future seems grim and hopeless for Reagan. While held captive Reagan spends most of his time with the nephew, Junior, played by Stephen Louis Grush. Junior is not very intelligent and seems to be more of an instinctive creature of the swamp than of modern civilization, but if you think that makes him a one note mental defect, you'd be wrong. One of the most intriguing parts of this film is how fascinatingly and, yes, even sympathetically, Junior is portrayed. Without relying on shallow sentiment or corny back story, but by virtue of performance and dialog alone, Junior quickly becomes the heart of this film, a strange little half man who the world has never known and will quickly abandon.Ryan Phillippe has described this film as a simple short story. I can't disagree with that. Ultimately, Reagan Pierce survives his capture and the two kidnappers suffer primitive justice handed out by their desperate prisoner in order to escape. The story is pretty straightforward. But that doesn't mean it is shallow. It's a fascinating character study of the kidnappers and of Reagan Pierce. There are some beautifully done moments in the film: Junior's knowledge and kinship with the swamp, his preparation of gator stew, and Pierce and Mike, the older bearded kidnapper, having a drawn out conversation about Mike's wife. You can feel the testosterone fumes in air as these two men face off as Reagan in his outrage seems to have no regard for his helpless state. And, there is Junior's shy infatuation with his prisoner and the way Reagan starts to flirt with Junior as a way to lower Junior's defenses. It's a slow swamp dance that Junior thinks is in his control, but proves to be his undoing.Ryan Phillippe layers his own character with a sense of what it is to be an actor in today's social media mad world. It's interesting to see how even Junior understands such things as the Internet and sites such as TMZ. Hmmm, could Ryan be giving us a statement on the mental acuity of the people who post such vile comments on various sites? Tig Nataro, the comedienne, has a small part in this film as Mike's sister. She is so good that I wish her part had been larger. For all of the above reasons, this film shows that it is the hands of a new, but gifted filmmaker. I can't close without remarking about two things. One is the beautiful way that the Louisiana swamp is filmed. The cinematography is overall beautifully done. And lastly, the closing credit sequence. Such a surprising choice. Funny as hell. A little tip of the hat from Ryan Phillippe to thank us for giving his film our time.