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#713 – Cade: The Tortured Crossing (2023)
Cade: The Tortured Crossing (2023)
Film review #713
Director: Neil Breen
SYNOPSIS: Billionaire super hero secret agent/Jesus allegory Cade donates some money to a mental hospital in disrepair. His aim is to secretly help the young inmates become warriors to fight evil. Cade’s twin brother Cale is back, and tries to abduct the patients for his own experiments however…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Cade: The Tortured Crossing is a 2023 film by Neil Breen, and a sequel to the 2019 film Twisted Pair. The film stars Breen once again in the double role of twins Cade and Cale, as well as director, producer and everything else behind the scenes. As always with his films, Breen stars as a superhuman Jesus allegory or something, and a plot that revolves around fighting evil corporations or something, all in Breen’s typical abstract, naïve way. This film is in fact even more incomprehensible than his usual efforts: superhero billionaire, secret agent maybe also genetically engineered A.I. and Jesus metaphor Cade invests in a mental hospital that is run down, and secretly uses it to train its patients to becomes warriors that fight evil…apparently anyway; I didn’t get any of that from actually watching this. Once again, Breen focuses on abstract monologues about good and evil than making any sense.
Near the beginning of the film, Cade helps some young adults who are in a crash, and takes them to his castle – or maybe the hospital – I don’t know. Rather than take them to get medical attention he has them stay the night…on the floor. Then they seem to be staying at this run down hospital where they are kept in appalling conditions, and Cade is still supposed to be the good guy? Honestly, this film is baffling, and I don’t think anyone other than Breen himself can really get what is supposed to be happening. And this is all before we deal with the scene with Breen wrestling a tiger, and the dance sequences with a ghost or something which defy any attempt at mental processing.
One somewhat notable aspect about the production is that the film is entirely shot in front of a green screen. This makes everything look extremely unconvincing. The tiger wrestling scene is completely ridiculous but I suppose it has a little competency to it: it still looks completely fake, but there’s at least some effort to get the tiger and Breen aligned. Once again, we are left with Breen’s characteristically well-intentioned, but unconvincing production that means well, but is simultaneously simple and overly complex plot-wise, and acting flatter than cardboard that means you can very take any scene seriously. In short: it’s just more Breen doing his thing.
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#712 – Twisted Pair (2019)
Twisted Pair (2019)
Film review #712
Director: Neil Breen
SYNOPSIS: Cade and Cale are twins that were abducted when they were children by aliens and given superpowers to save the human race. Cale’s methods were deemed too extreme and violent and he was dismissed from the program, but now as adults, the two twins clash as they try to stop an evil corporation using A.I. and other scary concepts…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Twisted Pair is a 2019 sci-fi film by Neil Breen. The film centres n two brothers, Cade and Cale, who were abducted by aliens and given super powers to save humanity from greedy corporations that use scary buzzwords. Cale is abandoned as his methods of dealing with corporations and CEOs is deemed too excessive (apparently), and now that they are grown adults, Cale is working as a secret agent bringing the evil corporations down, while Cale kidnaps CEOs and tortures them, setting up the two against each other when they finally reunite. Whether you are a fan of Breen’s anti-establishment, no budget endeavours, or detest his over pretentious allusions to being the second coming of Jesus, you’ll either love or hate the fact that Breen, aside from directing, writing and producing the film as usual, also plays the two main characters, so you get double the Breen for your buck. The only real difference visually between the two being that the evil Cale has a beard, utilising the typical “Evil Spock’s beard” trope. The iconography is about as subtle as being hit by a truck going the speed limit, with Breen stroking an eagle and narrating about artificial intelligence being evil (he’s not entirely wrong, but he’s not actually making much of a case or interesting story with his weak script and bland delivery).
The plot of this film is the usual Breen stuff: evil corporations are doing evil things, using evil Buzzwords like ” artificial intelligence” and “nanotechnology” to do bad things. Breen’s character himself (or themselves, I guess) are the sole ones capable of saving humanity from itself, and are the only bastion of good in the world free from the grip of corporations. Also adding in the mix of aliens and Breen’s character having allusions to being Jesus, you’ve got the typical Breen formula. There’s nothing new or unique to really highlight in this film. You can appreciate Breen’s seemingly genuine desire to be independent and not bound by any corporate interests, but would it hurt to get extras that can actually act, or maybe learn how to do effects that are not just cut and pasted from in front of a greenscreen? there’s also the typical habit of Breen’s character dating women quite a bit younger than he is, which is questionable at best. there’s no real evolution in Breen’s filmmaking, thought or writing: it’s just the same recycled stuff over and over, for better or worse.
The only real thing I can say about this film is that if you love Breen or you hate him, there’s twice as much of him in this film. Do with that information what you will.
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#385 – Pass Thru (2016)
Pass Thru (2016)
Film review #385
Director: Neil Breen
SYNOPSIS: …I don’t know. An artificial intelligence travels to the present to help guide humanity, who have lost their way with war, crime and corruption. The A.I. takes the body of a drug addict and befriends two migrant children who have escaped smugglers after they cross the U.S. border while it carries out it’s work.
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Pass Thru is a 2016 film. The film is written, directed by and stars Neil Breen, who has a track record for making many of these films single-handed. The film starts off showing some people smugglers getting some people across the U.S. border, and essentially imprisoning them. Meanwhile, a drug addict who helped them is given his payment in the form of drugs and passes out (or dies, I don’t know). Then an A.I. from a thousand years in the future turns up and takes his form…or possesses him? Nothing is really explained here. The A.I. says in one of its many, many monologues that humanity has lost its way through war, corruption and such, and in order to get it back on track he plans to kill about three hundred million people. That’s it. He befriends two of the smuggled migrants who managed to escape, who is converses with in between monologues and visiting corrupt bankers, lawyers and politicians before making them disappear. Oh and there’s a sub-plot with some kids and a professor watching outer space for anomalies or something. This film has little to no coherence or substance, and it obviously focuses on Breen professing his morality. Corruption, war and crime are bad: we already know this, and the film doesn’t really offer any solutions or interesting takes on it, instead just opting to make bad people disappear without showing any real consequence. The mix of monologues and dialogue scenes don’t come together, and all of the other characters don’t really make any contribution, lest they distract from Breen’s holy vision.
The A.I. is revealed to be called “Thgil”, which is obviously “light” backwards, and the film makes a major fuss over it, like it’s a creative revelation or something. Breen’s films always have him in the starring role as a very, very, very, very (very) thinly-veiled Christ figure whose mission is to unveil the corruption and evil in the world and fix it. I can’t help but feel this guy has a complex of some sort. As mentioned, it’s not exactly a revelation that the rich and powerful are corrupt, and war is bad, so I don’t see how this film is going to convert anyone to whatever Breen is trying to sell (kill three hundred million people? I don’t know).
So apart from the story being non-existent, the acting is all awful, and delivered so flatly and without life you can never be immersed in the film because every little gesture and speech sounds forced. The special effects could be done by anyone with a greenscreen and Photoshop, and the most ridiculous effect is the tiger that randomly appears throughout the film for no reason, especially when Breen tries to interact with it. There is also an obsession with drone shots with the film, since Breen clearly just bought one and wanted to fill the film with shots from it. The film might as well be about Breen buying a drone. Overall, Pass Thru is a one-man operation that tries to preach a message you already know. as a film the story is non-existent, the dialogue is forced, the acting is awful and the effects aren’t good enough to be described as amateur. It really does have to be seen to be believed, and might be worth a watch for a laugh if it doesn’t bore you to sleep first.
