THR3E — * — Marc Blucas, Justine Waddell, Laura Jordan; rated PG-13 (violence, brief drugs, mild profanity, nude artwork, brief gore).
The serial-killer thriller "Thr3e" demonstrates just how boring the "Saw" movies might have been if they hadn't featured all the gore and torture scenes.
This adaptation of Ted Dekker's best-selling novel is a nearly bloodless PG-13 thriller with a strong religious undercurrent. Oddly, it's being released theatrically by the specialty distributor Fox Faith, which is supposedly devoted to more uplifting cinematic fare.
But "Thr3e" is exploitative nonsense that cheapens the studio that released it. And if that's not enough, the film is completely inept in its direction, story construction and performances.
Marc Blucas (TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") stars as Kevin, a theological student who finds himself the target of a madman nicknamed the Riddle Killer by the tabloids. Riddle is trying to get the unlucky Kevin to confess his sins — as well as solve scripture-based puzzles. If not, he'll detonate explosive devices primed to kill Kevin's friends and classmates.
However, Kevin gets help from his childhood sweetheart, Samantha (Laura Jordan), as well as Jennifer (Justine Waddell), a cop who was also forced to play one of Riddle's potentially fatal "games."
All three leads are bland, which may explain why there's so little suspense here. None of them is interesting enough to care about, which may be why director Robby Henson throws in so many explosions. (Michael Bay, eat your heart out.)
And the supposed shock ending is so ludicrous that it could inspire laughs. That is, if the rest of the film hasn't already bored the audience to sleep.
"Thr3e" is rated PG-13 for strong scenes of violence (gunplay, vehicular violence, disturbing imagery and explosive mayhem), brief drug content (use of anesthetics), scattered mild profanity (religiously based), glimpses of nude artwork and some brief gore. Running time: 105 minutes.
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