— by CAM SMITH —
Poor Cuba Gooding Jr. Has there ever been a more spectacular post-Oscar win flameout?
Well, maybe Mira Sorvino …
Regardless, you can’t help but want to root for the guy every single time he shuffles up to bat with his latest clunker. “This is it, Cuba! This’ll be your ticket back to big time!”
But it never is, and for every “American Gangster,” there are three *shudder* “Boat Trips.”
Now, here is a sneak-peak at his most recent destined-for-obscurity effort, “Wrong Turn at Tahoe,” an overly mannered sardonic crime-drama which, based on early promotional material, resembles a sloppy amalgamation of mid-1990s Tarantino-lite indie tics and bungling “Bourne”-style shaky-cam action beats. Le sigh.
The four video clips posted below provide snippets of both of the flick’s dueling personalities, with a clumsily staged fist-fight scene — in which several shots don’t even seem to line up — and a kitchen shoot ‘em up, wherein Miguel Ferrer sternly decimates Harvey Keitel’s dishware, contrasted against two short conversational moments in which Gooding Jr. and co. posture and weakly spout banal tough-guy dialogue.
Frankly, the only actor who comes across as being even half-way alive is Keitel, who delivers a goofy “Jaws” analogy (…“Splash, splash, splash”) with amused relish.
Directed by Franck Khalfoun, who helmed the parking garage thriller “P2” — a tedious waste of celluloid that was slightly redeemed for its wonderfully shameless showcasing of star Rachel Nichols’ bountiful cleavage — and featuring Gooding Jr., Keitel, Ferrer, Leonor Varella, Mike Starr and Johnny “Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid” Messner, “Wrong Turn at Tahoe” is scheduled to pop up in a video store near you on Nov. 17.
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I will be skipping this.