Scenic Route

Director: Kevin Goetz and Michael Goetz

Cast: Josh Duhamel, Dan Fogler

Genre: Drama/Thriller 2013

Running time: 86 mins.

Rating:★

Life-long friends Mitchell (Josh Duhamel) and Carter (Dan Fogler) embark on a buddy, but end up broken down in the middle of a hostile desert. As their situation becomes more deadly, they defend into a brutally honest assessment of each other's lives. Their close bond is tested by harsh elements of nature and the unforgiving words traded back and forth. Soon their anger and fear pushes them into a deadly fight for their lives that is the ultimate test of their friendship.

It is quite clear that Carter (Fogler) is the most psychologically healthy and content with who he is of the two. He attempts to give a reality check on how much Mitchell has sold out and discarded the important things that used to be a part of who he was for a woman, who has him wrapped around her finger. Mitchell has therefore become a very repressed man and a yuppy. All Carter wants to do is reconnect with Mitchell he once knew, a man who loved another woman and played music, so he stages a break- down of his car. His plan works to no avail. 

With the vastness and lack of life-form, that the cinematography allows you to see, you feel just as frustrated as they do, but also sets a stage of what could be a battleground. This however, brings a predictability to the film. Yes, it is intriguing to be the invisible third party witnessing the chemistry of old friends reconnecting and being honest with one another, as close friends do, but putting them in the middle of nowhere...where! Where! Not a lot of people drive through very often and they have barely any food...Shit is going down! Why? Because it's a "Thriller" movie. Must keep the audience entertained somehow and have them anxious to tell all their friends to see, right? Money, money, money!!! I enjoyed Dan Fogler's performance the most, probably because his character is my kind of guy and the type of people that I like to surround myself with. But there's no real point watching the rest of the film because it already give you a glimpse of how this story ends.