Actors: Anton Yelchin, Willem Dafoe, Addison Timlin
Directors: Stephen Sommers
Rated: Unrated
Studio: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
DVD Release Date: March 25, 2014
Run Time: 96 minutes
Film: 3 out of 5 stars
Extras: N/A
“Odd Thomas” is based on Dean Koontz’s novel of the same name. It is directed, written and co-produced by Stephen Sommers, aka the director of “The Mummy” and “Van Helsing”. It stars the fantastic Anton Yelchin (“Fright Night”, “Star Trek”) and Willem Dafoe (“Spider-Man”). Where the hell did this film come from? And I also thought to myself why didn’t this film get a bigger release? Then I saw it. It is very ambitious and quite visual but also lacking that big-budget success factor. I call this a one-timer. But if you are a hardcore fan of the book, this is very true and will let you satisfied.
Official Premise: Small-town fry cook Odd Thomas (Anton Yelchin) is an ordinary guy with a paranormal secret: he sees dead people, everywhere. When a creepy stranger shows-up with an entourage of ghostly bodachs – predators who feed on pain and portend mass destruction – Odd knows that his town is in serious trouble. Teaming up with his sweetheart Stormy (Addison Timlin) and the local sheriff (Willem Dafoe), Odd plunges into an epic battle of good vs evil to try to stop a disaster of apocalyptic proportions.
Since this is from director of “The Mummy”, you would expect that this would be very visual effects heavy and in fact it actually is. The film packs some great VFX and the 1080p transfer support it very well. The film is also quite dark yet it still is very sharp. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track also works well with the jumps and the creepy/yet action packed score. There are no special features included, which just blows my mind and screams LAZY to be honest. A featurette on the visual effects alone would have been great.