"I feel out of control". So says Josh Hartnett's Cooper, the would-be psycho killer from 2024's Trap. Hartnett, well he plays Coop a little over the top, almost to the point of self-parody. One I guess basically flew over the Cooper's nest. Natch.
So yeah, Trap is another M. Night Shyamalan concoction, full of endless closeups, hobbledehoy rules, eye-rolling self-cameos, and pseudo, Spielbergian moments. I mean ever since Night brought the house down a la The Sixth Sense, he's made about 13 more films with maybe two of them worth embracing (Signs, Split). Shyamalan, well he constantly seems like a mixture of Steven Spielberg and Alfred Hitchcock. The problem is that Spielberg and Hitchcock are everyone's favorite sons while Night is the misbegotten stepchild, looking for some starved attention.
Shot with a budget of $30 million, saddled with a neutered, PG-13 rating, and featuring a supporting role played by Hayley Mills (yes that Hayley Mills from The Parent Trap), Trap is like the first flick from Shyamalan I can remember that didn't have his true, signature twist at the end. I mean the movie is all so cut and dried as it's devoid of any real apprehension, intrigue, or mystery. What's on screen, well it's the antithesis of everything the "Master of Suspense", and it's about as predictable as six months of total darkness in Alaska.
Trap's gist: a serial murderer goes with his daughter to a concert where a poor man's Rihanna is singing (that would be Lady Raven, played by M. Night's daughter Seleka Shyamalan). Guess what, the concert is a setup to try and find the bad guy as he eventually exits an arena of I guess 19-20 thousand people. Security and cops and backdoor limos and blocked entrances oh my! M. Night Shyamalan tries to hit a home run with Trap's "there for the taking" picture painting but ends up fouling off into the stands. Adding four or five extra endings in which Cooper escapes is not innovative, it's just Night's desperate way of filling his weakened, 105-minute running time. Boob "trapped".
Written by Jesse Burleson
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