A couple of things have me confused about
this movie 'Momentum', which as it turns out was perfectly
acceptable, reasonably slick, surprisingly competent Sci-Fi
channel-esque fare. As it plays out I'm guessing this
was originally a pilot for TV show, which obviously didn't
happen since this movie is ten years old at the time of this
writing, but there was quite a bit of profanity in it, so
maybe not. Who knows. I guess it's good for Teri
Hatcher that this pilot didn't get picked up, as this was made
a year before that putrid 'Desperate Housewives' and she
would've been forced to turn down that insanely lucrative
eight year run to stay in this mess, which probably would've
been canceled after four episodes. The Good Lord was
looking out for Teri. Speaking of Teri, I think
I'm gonna go watch 'Tango & Cash' again. And I've
lost focus yet again.
We join 'Momentum' in the midst of an armored truck heist, but
our thieves don't have guns, they have brains!
Especially one Adrian Geiger (Michael Massee) who topples the
truck and then rips open the steel doors only using his
kinetic super powers while his assistants Angry Black Dude
(Morocco Omari) and Disposable Dude (Brad Greenquist) look on
in amazement. Unfortunately Disposable Dude gets shot
and they had to leave him behind, which is kind of uncool when
you think about it because Geiger knows full well that super
evil government agent Ray Addison (Lou Gossett Jr.), who has
been looking for Geiger and his crew of mutant psychics for
the last thirty years, is gonna get a hold of this guy and use
some post 9-11 interrogation techniques on this guy to get
some answers.
Investigating this botched heist is
hot FBI agent and local celebrity Jordan Ripps (Hatcher) and
her old partner looking forward to retirement, i.e., he's
going to die, Frank McIntyre (Carmen Argenziano). We
don't know exactly why Agent Ripps is famous, the plan being
to introduce that in future episodes I'm
certain, but obviously it didn't get that far. The guard
tells them the guy that robbed him moved stuff with his brain,
but that's crazy right?
Maybe not, which leads us to this failed pilots defacto star
Zach Shefford (Grayson McCouch) who has been trying to
suppress his own mental abilities for his whole life, but then
a nutjob tries to rob the quickie-mart, and Zach was forced to
put him down with his super brain. The problem with this
is that Zach is now on the radar of the scurrilous Agent
Addison who wants to use Zach to infiltrate Geiger's legion of
psychics so Addison can them help them. And if by help
them he means totally murder them, then that's what he
means.
Where Zach thought it was just him with mutant powers, imagine
his surprise when he finds out there are plenty of mutants,
especially the psychic Tristen (Nicki Aycox) who not only is
an awesome psychic, and a little box of super cute sexiness,
but most importantly, to Zach's benefit, she is also of
suspect moral value. That's why we love Tristen.
But there is still Addison causing a ruckus and he's done
something real bad to the psychic population that has Geiger
super mad. He's going to make them pay, all of us, even
though we didn't do anything. And only Zach can stop
him. Personally I wouldn't mind a world run by crazed
mutant psychics.
While director James Seale's 'Momentum' does have the feel of
a TV pilot, at least it is a complete TV pilot that has a
legitimate ending and leaves only a little hanging in the wind
for future episodes, so that is something. Another thing
that probably wouldn't have worked so well in making
'Momentum' a TV show is that most of the more interesting
characters in this movie were murdered off, so that was
unfortunate as well, even though this is neither here nor
there, considering there is no TV series to worry about.
But all that being said we did like 'Momentum' well enough.
There's no particular reason that I enjoyed 'Momentum' because
in the overall wash the product probably does come off as
mediocre, but you know as well as I do that calling a movie
that's purchased as a Sci-Fi channel original mediocre… is a
step up, and even though this movie does filter down quite a
few science fictions themes into its generally broad
narrative, Mr. Seale does keep this movie clicking along at a
decent pace.
It also helps that this movie does a have a solid cast of
actors pushing it forward, the best of which, not surprisingly
was Louis Gossett Jr. as the rogue secret agent and his
vicious assistant played by Daniel Dae Kim. Those two
could probably carry a TV show by themselves. That is if
they survived this movie. Which they don't. That's
a spoiler by the way. It probably goes without saying
that Teri Hatcher is much more adept at playing a Desperate
Housewife than a hardcore FBI Agent but we like Teri Hatcher
and would probably enjoy watching her bake cookies, and not a
lot actresses can tap into their inner slut as well as Nicki
Aycox can. Grayson McCouch, outside of his awesome name,
isn't the most exciting leading man out there, and we'll leave
it at that.
'Momentum' is kind of forgettable entertainment, but it is
entertainment nonetheless.
