The Devil's Tomb - Horror Film Review
Starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Ron Perlman, and Ray Winstone
Jul 3, 2009
Why in the world is Cuba Gooding Jr. in The Devil's Tomb?
More on that later. First, let’s discuss the plot: elite soldiers go into an evil dungeon; elite soldiers encounter an evil force; elite soldiers split up to fight evil force; evil force kills elite soldiers one by one. Except for the leader, who apparently is a really elite soldier. Oh, and a massive bomb of some sort is counting down all the while.
More on The Devil’s Tomb Plot
Well, there’s really not much more to the plot. But there is lots of gratuitous blood, slime, and evilness.
Mack (Cuba Gooding Jr.), the leader of an elite military group, teams up with a CIA babe (Valerie Cruz) to rescue a scientist (Ron Perlman) stranded at an ancient archaeological site in the Middle Eastern desert. As the group descends deeper into the tomb, they slowly realize that an ancient evil is at work. The evil overtakes the soldiers one by one, either by killing or possessing them.
For some reason, evil zombie priests keep appearing in the dungeon. They apparently serve the evil force, and enjoy “giving penance” by vomiting green goop in people’s faces. The slime turns the soldiers evil. (Why do elite, battle-hardened solders always go nuts so easily in these films? Never mind.)
The Devil’s Tomb is nothing more than a third-rate regurgitation of all the cheesy horror/zombie/ghost movies of the past decade. The violence is unintentionally laughable. They way people die resembles the methods employed by the killers in Saw, Hostel, The Hills Have Eyes, 28 Days Later, and…well, it’s hard to keep up with all the horror/zombie/ghost movies coming out of Hollywood these days.
The Devil’s Tomb Cast
Thank goodness for Gooding Jr. At least he lends some much needed weight to a mostly weak supporting cast and an even weaker script. He seems to take the roll seriously, which makes some of the flimsy plot and flat dialogue at least somewhat bearable.
It’s a shame to see an actor of his caliber participating in a production of this kind. What a waste of talent. Did he read the script and decide that one-liners like “Welcome to hell!” and “Lock and load!” were just too good to not to be recited on film?
Has Gooding Jr. voluntarily chosen to replace making great movies like Jerry McGuire and Men of Honor with cheesy, low-budget horror movies like The Devil’s Tomb? Oh well. At least viewers can enjoy watching Henry “I’m a liar!” Rollins play a whiny Catholic priest.
Ron Perlman, who starred in Hellboy, is always a joy to watch on screen, even if his screen time is limited. Veteran actor Ray Winstone, Mack’s former captain in the Iraq War, has some notable screen time. But for the most part, the film is dominated by relative unknown actors reciting tired, absurd dialogue.
Rating of The Devil’s Tomb
Because of its laughable horror, boring action, and meaningless plot, The Devil’s Tomb is not really worth the cost of the plastic DVD case it comes in. Only diehard Cuba Gooding Jr. fans might enjoy this atrocity.
Out of a possible four, The Devil’s Tomb gets - begrudgingly - one star.
- Producers: Steve B. Harris, Bill Sheinberg, Jonathan Sheinberg, Sid Sheinberg
- Director: Jason Connery
- Screenplay: Keith Kjornes
- Starring: Cuba Gooding Jr., Ray Winstone, Ron Perlman, Taryn Manning, Valerie Cruz
- Released: May 2009 by Sony Pictures
- Running Time: 90 minutes
- Rating: R for strong violence/gore, language and brief nudity
 |
