Meeting Evil (2012) Movie Review

Written & Directed by Chris Fisher

Starring: Luke Wilson, Samuel L. Jackson, Leslie Bibb

John is taken on a murder-fueled ride by a mysterious stranger that transforms the weak-willed, disillusioned husband and father into a desperate hero willing to go to any length to protect his family.

Okay, what? First of all, this is the most poorly worded synopsis I’ve seen in some time. A more accurate representation would be:

A plot so ridiculous and unfounded that only John’s decision-making skills can compete.

John (WIlson) is a down on his luck realtor with a wife and two kids. The bills are piling up, he can’t close his deals, and his own home was just foreclosed on. A stranger named Richie (Jackson) knocks on John’s door claiming to have car trouble. Yeah, because people knock on stranger’s doors requesting help in this day and age. If you can’t get past that, you won’t get past the fact that John looks at his phone, but doesn’t take it with him. He’s injured helping Richie start his car and agrees to let the abrasive stranger take him to the hospital. What? You don’t often see a film derail from the opening bell in the way Meeting Evil does. The rest of the film is a poorly executed pseudo crime-thriller that fancies itself the next Seven. It’s so not.

Focusing on a hidden affair and Richie’s serial killer sensibilities, the film branches into a violently confusing failure. Not even Sam Jackson helped this waste of time pull out of its cinematic tailspin. I have a rule against checking a film’s rating on Rotten Tomatoes before I watch it, especially if it’s unknown to me. That 13% approval rating just flipped me off. This is based on the novel by Thomas Berger. I haven’t read it, but I have to logically assume it’s a hundred times better.