Midnight in the Switchgrass is another straight-to-video (or streaming) flick that might grab ones attention seeing Bruce Willis and/or Megan Fox on the cover but what you get is a half-baked story, some shoddy editing and another sleepwalking performance from Willis.
Midnight in the Switchgrass
(2021)
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller, Crime
Lionsgate| R – 99 min. – $21.99 | July 27, 2021
Date Published: 07/27/2021 | Author: The Movieman
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Lionsgate provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 2¼/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: While in Florida on another case, FBI agents Helter (BRUCE WILLIS) and Lombardo (MEGAN FOX) cross paths with state cop Crawford (EMILE HIRSCH), who’s investigating a string of female murders that appear to be related. Lombardo and Crawford team up for an undercover sting, but it goes horribly wrong, plunging Lombardo into grave danger and pitting Crawford against a serial killer (LUKAS HAAS) in a twisted game of cat and mouse.
Review: Midnight in the Switchgrass is a normally the type of movie I gravitate towards since I am a fan of the crime-thrillers. However, given this was direct-to-video and has Bruce Willis in second billing, I had low expectations and… they were pretty well met, unfortunately. Plot wise, the movie is filled with every cliché you can think of with a reckless FBI agent or a very generic killer with fuzzy motives outside of just being a pervert. I’ve seen more complicated plotlines on a self-contained episode of Criminal Minds, and better writing in general which is saying something since that series wasn’t always top-notch in that department, as much as I loved the show. In any case, Switchgrass doesn’t hold a whole of surprises so you’re going through the motions until the end which was underwhelming.
Acting wise, well, never really bought Megan Fox as some careless FBI agent but she still looks good going on nearly 15 years since Transformers and honestly she wasn’t terrible given she had little to work with. Or opposite in the case of Bruce Willis, delivering a monotone performance that I’ve seen from him numerous times in these STV movies; and as usual he scenes probably were filmed in a day, had maybe 10-minutes of screen time and his character was a non-factor to the plot. Emile Hirsch, who made a splash debut with Almost Famous seems to have a meandering career and here, for some reason, puts on a southern accent which was just shy of being cartoonish and no reason behind it as it added nothing to his character. Midnight in the Switchgrass was helmed by longtime producer Randall Emmett (Escape Plan and a bunch of these STV flicks like Marauders and Trauma Center) and this marks his feature film debut as a director, presumably to cut down on costs and get through a lightning speed production schedule that, apparently was only one week (plus a day of reshoots, wouldn’t surprise if it was the only day Willis was available). With the tight schedule, you’re not going to get any particularly interesting direction and it’s fairly bland and is combined with some shoddy editing where there’s very little, if any, genuine suspense. However, not a good excuse as I’ve seen better direction for TV episodes.
In the end, Midnight in the Switchgrass while not at all good isn’t terrible, just another straight-to-video flick that will be forgotten in less than a week’s time, alongside the likes of Precious Cargo or Trauma Center. As much as I generally enjoy the crime-drama-thriller genres, this one doesn’t have very much going for it, and yet another movie with Bruce Willis sleepwalking through his “performance”. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1¾/5 |
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This release comes with a glossy slip cover and inside is a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. The only features is an Audio Commentary with Producer/Director Randall Emmett and the Trailer (2:49). |
VIDEO – 4/5 |
| Lionsgate releases Midnight in the Switchgrass onto Blu-ray presented with a 2.39 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. Picture is pretty average or on par with what I’ve come across with a low budget direct-to-video release, detail is adequate enough while colors are tamped down for daytime scenes while the nighttime shots a bit lackluster and black levels are fairly gray. |
AUDIO – 4¼/5 |
| The movie comes with the standard DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. Dialogue comes across clear enough and there is some minor depth with the LFE channel kicking on to add some bass to certain scenes. Nothing amazing but certainly more than sufficient for a movie that doesn’t really have any action scenes. |
OVERALL – 2/5 |
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Midnight in the Switchgrass is another straight-to-video (or streaming) flick that might grab ones attention seeing Bruce Willis and/or Megan Fox on the cover but what you get is a half-baked story, some shoddy editing and another sleepwalking performance from Willis. It’s not terrible and maybe it’s worth checking out if you can get it cheap. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.