646f9e108c A federal witness runs away and a team of government agents track him down, but when they take a shortcut on the return trip, they&#39;re attacked by zombies. Smith, a mob informer hiding out with the Witness Protection Program, decides to make a break for it and hide out in the Arizona desert. The Feds catch up with him and rescue him just before a group of hitmen can manage to silence him for good. In the course of getting Smith away from the mafia thugs, the pair of agents assigned to protect him turn onto an abandoned stretch of highway nicknamed &#39;Route 666&#39; after the mysterious death of a prison chain gang. As the three continue on their way, they soon discover just what happened to the chain gang, and how the highway earned its name. If &quot;Route 666&quot; has anything going for it, it has to be the visual aspect. The film is shot in 2.35:1 widescreen and is very nicely photographed. The lighting and camera angles demonstrate a slick professionalism more common to major Hollywood studio productions than cheap, direct-to-video horror flicks. That said, the rest of the film is nothing special. The plot involving restless ghouls on an abandoned desert road is mildly involving, but some terrible overacting (Dale Midkiff, in particular, constantly acts like Chandler–from the TV show &quot;Friends&quot;–having a panic attack) and remarkably stupid plot contrivances undermine any tension built by the director. At one point, two characters start a fist-fight for no reason except to be a plot device to keep them from helping other characters under attack. The filmmakers don&#39;t even try to provide a good reason for the sudden fight. At best, the least discriminating viewer might chuckle knowingly at the cheap ploy. More likely the average viewer will say, &quot;Why the hell did they start punching each other?!&quot; Either way, the result is that the audience is knocked out of the story. That&#39;s too bad,the director (or editor) otherwise keep a quick pace to the movie that is usually enough to gloss over most minor plot problems. The film is certainly never boring; there are gunfights, chases, and violent gore horror galore. Bottomline: if you are the type of movie watcher who is familiar with b- or c-flicks and can enjoy them despite their problems, then you could do much, much worse than &quot;Route 666.&quot; Went in with an open mind, looking to watch an entertaining movie and it turned out to be just that… Entertaining. Story could have been stronger, but the idea was very good and kept me watching. The arty camera shaking was pointless but didn&#39;t ruin the film for me. Not sure in the direction they wanted to take this film, but its definitely not a horror, more of a road movie with a touch of every other genre.<br/><br/>ALL in all, if your lost for what film to watch, definitely worth checking out Route 666, its not the greatest film, but go with an open mind, and don&#39;t pick at everything you see, and you&#39;ll enjoy the film, I could quite happily sit through it again
scigtidepho Admin replied
344 weeks ago