Review: Urge BD + Screen Caps

THE MOVIE — 1.5/5

Grindstone Entertainment, a subsidiary of Lionsgate, hasn’t had the best track record with more than a few turkeys, not to mention the tendency to meddle with their releases. I don’t know if that was the case with Urge but the final product is a mess in spite of an interesting premise and Pierce Brosnan as a villain.

The story centers on hedge fund manager Neil (DANNY MASTERSON) taking his friends Danny (NICK THUNE), Joey (ALEXIS KNAPP), Vick (CHRIS GREEN) and Denise (BAR PALY), as well as his personal assistant/hopeful girlfriend Theresa (ASHLEY GREENE) to an island for a weekend of leisure at his mansion. Upon their arrival, much to Theresa’s disappointment, Neil’s other buddy, Jason (JUSTIN CHATWIN), is already there taking up his own leisure activity f’ing a local hot girl.

Their first night they go to an exclusive club where they come upon an, well, interesting crowd and upon seating, the entertainment begins with a Fruit-of-the-Loom on steroids greet his audience and introduces an exotic dancer (KEA HO, who also a producer on the film). After some annoying editing and cuts, Mr. Fruit-of-the-Loom dude takes Jason behind the scenes to meet The Man (PIERCE BROSNAN) to procure some drugs, in this case a designer drug called “Urge”. After a cryptic message from The Man (as he’s credited), Jason is given the drug for free to distribute amongst his friends.

But there is one rule. Only one dose. Well, given he has a supply that can serve an entire city; they quickly break that rule the following day after experiencing the best night of their lives. Well, that night they take more than a few doses and soon enough their weekend home becomes a party house for the entire island. Sex and violence ensues as each of our character’s most inner desires and inhibitions come to the surface from Neil telling off Theresa after they finally have sex to Theresa harnessing her inner 50 Shades and beats Neil up. Meanwhile, Jason seems to be the only one unaffected (or uninfected as it were) as he witnesses some weird shit happening all around him including his friends turning on one another.

It’d be too dismissive to call this a crap movie and yet when it was over, more on that later, I could only think “WTF”. And not in a good way. The performances from everyone except maybe Pierce Brosnan who appeared to be having a good time in his 3 scenes was suspect though Ashley Greene continues to top herself in terms of sexiness and she does at least have one good and intense scene while the rest like Danny Masterson and, especially, Nick Thune were over the top. It doesn’t help that the four male characters were pretty much d-bags and the ladies, save for Greene, weren’t much better making it difficult to give two shits about them, although for his part, Justin Chatwin wasn’t terribly bad, so that’s something.

Directed by Aaron Kaufman (directorial debut, producer of Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and Machete Kills), who also has a story by credit, Urge started off well enough even with six characters who were either utterly unlikeable or annoying, but as the film progressed, following the bizarre club scene, it was just a messy plot that led to a third act, and a post-credit scene (featuring Alison Lohman), that turned this from a commentary on society and the dark sides of ourselves, into an out-and-out (and all-too-common) zombie horror flick.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.5/5

This release comes with a glossy, title-embossed, slip cover. Inside is a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. Features-wise, it’s a bit limited with only a Behind the Scenes (5:27; HD) featurette with cast and crew interviews and the red band Theatrical Trailer (2:17; HD).

Previews – Nerve, Sundown, Blood Father, Cell, Narcos: Season One

VIDEO – 4.5/5

AUDIO – 4.5/5

OVERALL – 2.0/5

Overall, I so wanted to love and embrace the insanity of Urge, and yet with a few absolutely unlikeable characters, with Ashley Greene being tolerable and Pierce Brosnan seemingly having the time of his life, as well as some over-the-top acting and a story that devolves into zombie apocalypse territory, I can’t recommend it. At best, I’d say it’s a rental. The Blu-ray released by Lionsgate offers great video/audio transfers but falls short in the features.