Film Review – Panama

In 2006, Mark Neveldine co-directed “Crank.” The supercharged, hyperactive thriller managed to tickle some viewers with its vision for total mayhem, using sheer adrenaline and dark humor to provide entertainment. Neveldine has been chasing that career high ever since, offering berserk visuals to a “Crank” sequel, “Gamer,” and “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance,” with audiences mostly rejecting opportunities to witness what’s basically been more of the same old skate video chaos. In 2015, there was “The Vatican Tapes,” a dreadful film ignored by all, but Neveldine remains committed to his career, and he’s back with “Panama,” which is barely a movie at times, offering ticket-buyers a chance to watch the production remain in hotel rooms and march around suburban Puerto Rico, trying to conjure the insanity of Central America in 1989 for roughly the budget of a Toyota commercial. Cameras swoop and spin, lingerie-clad extras are scanned in full, and the screenplay goes butch, but Neveldine just doesn’t have what it takes to make an interesting feature. In fact, this is his worst endeavor to date. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com