The Mailman (2004/Horror)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Feature: C-

 

 

Not to be confused with Kevin Costner’s inane disaster The Postman, Tony Mark’s The Mailman (2004) is about the prodigal son returned as an adult to get revenge on his own family taking the title occupation to achieve that end.  This is a dumb idea for a dumb project, but the unknown cast’s lame acting is so lame that this becomes unintentionally amusing, with unintended mistakes, no scares, no suspense and at 82 minutes quits while it’s ahead.

 

Brian Mazo’s script is so by the numbers, you can almost see the numbers coming.  That is why this is not a total disaster.  Instead of being total schlock, it is an amusing dud.  That is more than you can say for the Costner’s drama or many of the glut of bombs the genre keeps producing.  Worth a look for diehards if they happen upon a copy.

 

The letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image is very detail limited with limited color, though the image has not been manipulated much.  Courtney Jones’ camerawork is not good or great, but not awful ands sometimes as unintentionally funny as the final cut.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has no surrounds and some audio flaws.  The combination shows the low budget and there are no extras.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo