Crawl (2011) starring George Shevtsov, Bob Newman, Georgina Haig, Baz McAlister directed by Paul China Movie Review

Crawl (2011)   2/52/52/52/52/5


George Shevtsov in Crawl (2011)

As the Title Says

Bar owner Slim Walding (Paul Holmes), hires himself a Croatian hitman (George Shevtsov) to murder the local garage owner which the hitman does with no emotion what so ever with a bullet through his forehead. But it seems Slim has not been as smart as thinks as this killer decides to double cross him. But a series of events not only leads to local, Travis (Andy Barclay), ending up dead but with the hitman going after Travis's girlfriend Marilyn Burns (Georgina Haig) as well.

"Crawl" could just have easily been called tedious as it would have been just as appropriate. On one hand this movie is so slow that it does simply crawl along whilst so little actually happens that combined with the slow pace it is tedious to the point that you begin to wonder what director Paul China was aiming for. This is even more the case because at times it seems like he is trying to make a comedic version of a Coen thriller. By that there are some touches in "Crawl" which to me seem obvious references to "No Country for Old Men" with are killer being a stony faced man with a gun. Yet after what seems to be a scene paying homage we get a brash Australian caricature tossed in there with bar owner Slim which seems simply out of place.

This mixed tone begins to feel like an attempt to hide the fact that "Crawl" doesn't have a storyline to sustain a movie and so we get scenes such as one featuring Marilyn in a shower then becoming spooked by her quiet and seemingly large home. It goes on and one and on with no pay off what so ever. Don't get me wrong as in the right movie it would be a fantastic scene, beautifully shot and so on but it ends up wrong in this movie and contributes to that painfully slow experience.

What this all boils down to is that "Crawl" really didn't do it for me and was far too slow and tedious to ever be effective. Add to that the mixed tone which meant it felt all over the shop and more of a showcase for a director's various talents and sadly the final product left me wanting, mostly wanting it to be over.


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