Edge of Darkness - Movie Review

With all the hooh hah about the horrifying Mel Gibson tapes, I'd forgotten that he'd had a "comeback" movie out a little while ago and there it was, Edge of Darkness, available at Redbox at just the right price. Though I can't say I'm the same fan I was before those audio tapes were leaked, I was willing to pay a buck to see if Gibson still had the stuff to open a movie.

He could have picked a better vehicle.

Starting with the non-title title - who comes up with this stuff? - the movie's a pretty straight-forward conspiracy type thing where evil corporations collude with evil government types. I think. I never really did get the plot straight. It's all just a reason for Mel's character to go from one place to another chasing one person or the other and having the plot twist in on itself with a final confrontation between good and evil and then maybe some redemption. Ho hum.

And that's the real problem here. Gibson's baggage and the convoluted and contrived plot aside, the movie's just really not that interesting and that's too bad. There was the potential for this to be a real crowd-pleaser before Gibson went off the rails for what appears to be good and the movie-makers failed to get things to gel.

Word is Gibson has some more work in the pipeline. His current shot-himself-in-his-own-foot troubles will likely overshadow them but maybe these movies will remind us of the talent he once had, if we find we even care about him when they come out. Unfortunately, this movie didn't.