Review of Edison

Introduction

Now here`s a turn-up for the books. A direct to DVD film starring some pretty Grade A actors. What`s with that then? Edison was originally called Edison Force, what a title (!), and was only released in cinemas in a few countries who presumably didn`t realise what they were getting to start with. With a $25 million budget, I`m not overly convinced by the figures on iMDB that this was even covered by those screenings and I`m not overly hopeful for the DVD release either…

OK, plot time. Edison is not just the name of the world`s most prolific inventor, it`s also the name of a town in the good ol` US of A. The film opens with an unconventional drug bust by the local elite drug task force F.R.A.T on a couple of unsuspecting kids. Sgt. Frances Lazerov (Dylan McDermott) and partner-ish Office Rafe Deed (LL Cool J) are the guys doing the busting. Rafe has only just joined the squad and can`t quite bring himself to kill one of the kids to ensure they don`t get ratted out. Lazerov has no such qualms, kills one, persuades the other to come up with a usable story, busts him and nick all the stuff.

Some time later, the trial is taking place of the busted suspect Isiaha Charles (Damien Wayans) and watching is rookie reporter Josh Pollack (Justin Timberlake). Pollack witnesses a simple thank you gesture from Charles to Deed after the latter`s testimony effectively send him to jail, and his suspicion is aroused. Writing a story on the incident, with some gut instincts of what is really going on, Pollack shows it to his boss, Moses Ashford (Morgan Freeman) who is editor of coupon-driven local paper Edison Heights. Ashford isn`t interested though, until Pollack comes back with just enough for them to speak to local D.A. Jack Reigert (Cary Elwes) and his top investigator Levon Wallace (Kevin Spacey).

Reigert is dismissive of the whole thing, but Wallace isn`t so easily convinced that everything the reporters say is rubbish. Unknown to any of them though, F.R.A.T is working under the authority of Reigert and he warns Captain Tilman (John Heard). This leads to Pollack and his girlfriend Willow (Piper Parabo) being beaten up by Lazerov, who is slowly getting more and more out of control. Deed though, is having second thoughts of what he has gotten himself into…

Video

Might be straight to DVD, but it wasn`t originally meant to go that way so it`s the equivalent of a recent film transfer, nowt special though…

Audio

Nothing that great to be honest.

Features

Theatrical Trailer

Making Of - 12 minute piece that errs cautiously on the side of avoiding being overly EPK-lite. Interviews with everyone bar Kevin Spacey (for some reason).

Can understand why it`s so light when it`s direct to DVD…

Conclusion

So what went wrong? Oddly in a complete juxtaposition to a recent discussion on these very forums, this film was directed by the writer, and he either wrote a pretty bad script or lost it. This film is bad. The dialogue and plot are bad enough, and completely unoriginal and uninspired. Poor scripts can be saved by the actors, but not here. Kevin Spacey is wasted in a role that is virtually insignificant (despite most of the other characters bigging him up as best investigator in the world ever…) and gets a stupid haircut to boot. No wonder he didn`t appear on the Making Of. Morgan Freeman was clearly not paid enough for this film, so he just phones his performance in. Justin Timberlake is OK, but it`s his debut so you can`t really hold it against him. Only LL Cool J puts in a performance that is anywhere near satisfactory.

The less said about John Heard and Dylan McDermott the better. They`re the main bad guys, but in a complete opposite to Spacey and Freeman, they try too hard. They`re meant to be menacing, but come off as comical. Sad really.

This is nothing we haven`t seen a number of times before, it`s completely formulaic and bland. Give it a miss.