Remarkable Power DVD Review

Remarkable Power!, released by MTI Home Video on February 16th, is an over-complicated and boorish, supposedly comedic film whose only positives might be in its production and editing! Jack West (played capably by Kevin Nealon) is a TV talk show host who smolders at seeing a video of his wife Cynthia (Sandra Hess) cheating on him with LA professional baseball star Doug Wade (Johnny Messner). He has this tape through the surveillance techniques of a licensed private investigator played by Tom Arnold (who also gives a good performance that is entirely wasted on the bad writing in this film!). A sub-plot involves loser Ross (Evan Peters) who meets up with Preston, the star of Remarkable Power!, a vague and generalized self-help infomercial about making money (where the only money made will be by what’s taken from those who send in for the information, which includes Ross). The sub-plot goes on to not shocking but boring involvements with death, drugs, and beautiful women like Candy (Whitney Able).

The plot winds its way in and out of time confusingly (telling us something occurred four days earlier, eight days earlier, etc., and we would have to backtrack in the DVD and study it thoroughly to comprehend the real time-line)! The murdered people don’t really look dead, but rather covered with massive tangles of unbelievable blood. A drug emissary, Reggie (Dule Hill) is carjacked so that his sender, Preston, has no money for Moses (Jack Plotnick) and his gigantic baseball bat-wielding bodyguards. Moses is supposed to be a comical figure, but any comedic element is dead here before it hits the screen! Other subplots are placed in artificially and seemingly for no reason at all.

The characters are embarrassingly superficial and it is impossible to feel anything for them. They seem to be the nebulous plot’s pawns on a scaringly unstructured chessboard, and no amount of good acting can counteract the bad writing. Why should we care about Jack West and his TV program in which he parades freaks? Why should we feel for him about his failed marriage since he himself shows almost no emotion at all, or why should we care about his cheating wife (who just seems to want his money)?

Most of all, why should we care about loser protagonist Ross, who is extricated from every difficult situation by tricks of fate and believes that he deserves to change overnight from Brewer Boy of Milwaukee, Wisconsin to a moneyed Los Angeles businessman? Death doesn’t phase him, and Candy’s attraction to him makes no sense (except for believing his lies about fame and money). In fact, most of the women in Remarkable Power! are portrayed as money-grubbing!

I have no idea why this film was ever made and am astounded that Tom Arnold agreed to play a part in it! Robots could easily have been employed to star as these characters! Even Absurdist humor has, at base, human insights – greed, revenge, the pursuit of happiness – but in Remarkable Power all of the actors seem to be going through inexplicable traumas. In fact, it seems that life is happening to them rather than having them initiate anything of value. Parts of the ending (except for one twist) are agonizingly predictable!

Not for family or teenage viewing (rated R for the soft porn surveillance and bouts of violence), Remarkable Power! has no power at all. My recommendation is to stay away from it if at all possible since it has no redeeming value, not even laugh value!

MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 91 minutes
DVD Release Date: February 16, 2010

Grade: D-

Director: Brandon Beckner
Starring: Tom Arnold, Kevin Nealon, Evan Peters, Kip Pardue, Nora Zehetner, Dule Hill, Sandra Hess and Whitney Able

Remarkable Power! DVD Review by Christina of Movie Room Reviews