Catch Hell

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.

the good thing - Stephen Louis Grush's performance. the bad thing - ambition of Ryan Phillippe to do a horror.because the result is a not inspired experiment - too large, too confuse, chaotic and predictable. and nothing more. not purpose, not answers. and the desire to say all in a kind of ironic image about Hollywood. a film saved by a single actor and the final scene. and it could not be enough when all is known and the expectations are reasonable. the collection of old tricks, the mistakes at every step, the not convincing acting, the dusty solutions are only bricks for a strange work. and the excuses , in that case, are lost. a film about fame and revenge. like too many others.

If anyone says this was a bad movie, has got to naturally hate Ryan Phillpe. Junior's accent was spot on for Louisiana. It is possible for something like this to happen, which is scary within itself. The Security guard was funny too. I think this was a great breakout movie for Ryan. Instead of the same old teeny bop crap he's in, in this movie we actually see him as a man all grown up and sexy. hahahhahahah He captures a lot of what happens with Hollywood actors when they become an adult and how even at a young age, you can be considered "washed up". I give this movie and 8.

Wow was this (TV?) movie horrible. Even for Hallmark channel standards. I can't honestly find a redeeming quality in the film except the shooting location which was under utilized. Whoever is writing Phillipe's positive reviews clearly have more talent with diction than he does. While Phillipe has been in a couple decent films, this was quite far from one of them. He is certainly not a screen writer. He is even less a director. I hope he didn't produce this bomb because it is frankly laughable. The dialogue- pedestrian. The character development- virtually none to speak of and only exists as a cheap parody of stereotypes. The plot- an uninspired remake of hundreds of episodes you might see on any Lifetime TV series. In short... It's a large turd. So do yourself the courtesy of a preemptive courtesy flush and save yourself the smell of complete and utter desperation.

Yikes. I heard Phillipe promoting this on the radio and was intrigued. Downloaded it and boy was I disappointed. Just awful in almost every way. Now, I am not a fan of horror or B thrillers, and maybe that's what they were going for here, but still.......... Some of the actors were like out of a Troma film, the script was shoddy, predictable, pandering, and at times just simply stupid. The only good point to this entire movie, and the reason I didn't give it 1, was the actor who played Junior. He was wonderful. Interesting to watch, made some great and creepy choices, really seemed to delve into the world of the movie without taking US out as a result, and made his scenes memorable. Furthermore, it seemed apparent that the writer probably had this character in mind initially and built the script out from there, since he seemed to also be the only character that was fully developed, had layers, and a sense of a back story. There's even a really creepy shot of him doing shirtless chin ups and then just hanging on the bar like a monkey staring at Phillipe. A bit of artistic symbolism that seemed to conversely come out of nowhere in the rest of this mess. Ryan: stick to acting......you've been privileged to do some fantastic films alongside some turkeys. This one by far gobbled the worst.

Morality tales are always difficult. Going after the whole fame makes one vulnerable thing too. Put "crazy fans" into it and you get something weird like this. And all that with one of the worst plans (if any) in recent memory. Things can go sideways and they will especially if you haven't really thought about them. Don't get me wrong, there are quite a few scenes that are difficult to watch, because they are brutal and you feel the pain just watching. Nothing that is exciting or fun in any way. Thankfully it doesn't stay on that track too much. Not the kind of movies I like to watch anyway, this lacks a bit of empathy. Ryan Phillipe might feel at "home" (no pun intended) with some of the scenarios (job and fame wise that is), but this won't help him get back on any Hollywood radar any time soon

Wondering how come this has under 2k voters in over 4 months since the release. Maybe the script is not something new, but this is the case with almost everything nowadays. However, the way how the things are presented and the acting level is notable. The situation is simple and one young actor is trapped into a scam for doing a new film, things ending up with him being a prisoner. But from an initial ignorance and the 'stars attitude' he is going to transform himself and to experience a new reality, of being afraid, insecure, hurt and even losing his 'image' for the outside world. Ryan Phillippe is putting a great effort in impersonating all these emotions, while on the dark side, you will get a good acting level from both kidnappers.

Ryan Phillippe's directorial debut 'Catch Hell' is a strange little movie. It's an interesting story that never really goes anywhere. The plot never really advances. And Phillippe in the lead role is never really given any opportunity to shine. He co-wrote the story as well so this surprised me. Surely when you write a character that you know you're going to play you give yourself every opportunity to be the star of the show, but this was never really the case. The kidnappers had the most interesting characters of the lot. It's not an overly bad movie, it's just simply pretty forgettable. There's no element to it that separates it from the bunch. Does Phillippe have a future behind the camera? I don't see why not. This film would have been about as straight forward as they come to direct, but I still didn't see any glaring mistakes he made. The choice of the scene over the credits was a bizarre one for me. I'm not sure exactly what he was going for with that and I'd love to hear his explanation. Give it a look if you're short of something to watch but otherwise you're not missing a whole lot.