A waste of 90 minutes of my life

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Despite the obvious low budget, the film has an excellent cast. Balthazar Getty, who plays the lead, was in David Lynch's film Lost Highway. People continually call him the poor man's Charlie Sheen but he really does have talent. And yes, Peter Weller was the guy who played Robocop. But forget that. In Shadow Hours, he is suave and convincing as the mysterious writer who is a bit more underground than, say, Bukowski. Rebecca Gayheart is here, too, in what might be the best performance in the film and she plays a woman in this movie, not some whiny high school ditz like in Jawbreaker. And Brad Douriff is, well, Brad Douriff. Peter Greene plays a police detective and is probably the best "tough guy" actor since James Caan or James Cagney. He played Ben Stiller's drug buddy in Permanent Midnight. As far as plot is concerned: Michael (Getty) meets Stuart Chapelle (Weller) while on the night shift at a 24 hour Los Angeles filling station. Stuart befriends Michael and, with Stuart as his guide, Michael is led straight into a private apocalypse with the strange LA underground as a backdrop. Gayheart is Michael's pregnant wife who is understandably concerned. But she never comes off as whiny like all other movie wives. And Greene gets involved because Chapelle may or may not be a murderer.The thing that really makes this movie special is that the director clearly is a moral person and is making a comment on the evils of society. Like Michael under the fluorescent glare of the Snack Shop, Mr. Eaton the writer and director captured the insanity he saw all around him. The Job speech is a marvel, and not only does it make an interesting comment on the present period but also proved to be quite prophetic in the sense that further on into the 21st Century, morality really degenerated. In some ways an opposite Job situation, people were morally tested, given everything, technology, the pleasures of the flesh, drugs, alcohol, but all it did was serve to darken the hearts of people and cause them to forget God. The music is just wonderful. The director has a great visual style, and is clearly influenced by greats such as Martin Scorsese.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

Shadow Hours demonstrates to all filmmakers that when you're making a motion picture, being fast is a lot like being good. As long as you've got a talented cast and a rapid fire pace that's always plunging forward, that'll cover up a lot of deficiencies in plotting and characterization.Michael Holloway (Balthazar Getty) is a recovering drug addict working the graveyard shift at a gas station in one of the seedier sections of Los Angeles. He wants to stay sober and take care of his pregnant wife Chloe (Rebecca Gayheart), but he feels more and more desperate and trapped. Then one night, a man in a black suit and a black sports car rolls into Michael's life. He says he's a writer named Stuart Chappell (Peter Weller) and he takes a shine to Michael. Stuart offers Michael a job as his assistant, which Michael eventually takes after the menial grind of the gas station gets to be too much for him. Stuart takes Michael on a journey into the night, exposing him to greater and greater depths of human debauchery and depravity until Michael's sobriety, marriage and even life are at risk. While that's going on, there's another ill-defined and poorly executed storyline about a police detective (Peter Greene) investigating a series of murders. This plot thread only exists to facilitate a more explosive and dramatic end to Stuart and Michael's more cerebral tale. It's vaguely explained, tangentially relevant and the actions of the detective don't make a lick of sense.In a lot of ways, Shadow Hours isn't that good a film. Its story is basic and shallow. Its moments of drama are inorganically contrived. Its moral is muddled and confused. It has a lot of characters that don't serve much of a purpose. Yet for all that, it's still fairly entertaining.Much of that is thanks to the blazing speed that writer/director Isaac H. Eaton brings to the tale. His scenes are short and briskly edited with a plentiful helping of visual montages to establish mood and tone, granting Shadow Hours a vitality and appeal that it doesn't entirely deserve. This movie doesn't slow down to establish or explain a whole lot, racing from beginning to end like a flaming jack rabbit running for a pond. That swiftness makes the good parts of the story seem sharper and keeps the bad parts from lingering long enough to be annoying.The other significant positive to this movie are nice performances from characters large and small. Peter Weller is perfect as the wickedly mysterious and tempting Stuart Chappell and also appears to be having a lot of fun with the role. He takes a character that could have been unbearably pretentious and removes all the starch from him with a low-key but precise portrayal that embraces the jumble of the story and turns it into an asset. The script is never clear about certain aspects of Stuart Chappell, unintentionally I believe, and Weller takes that on and believably makes Stuart very human at some moments and quite something else at others.Balthazar Getty is good, though he's never asked to do much more than convey the essential decency in Michael without making him seem like a boy scout. Rebecca Gayheart does everything that can be done with the clichéd girlfriend role. Peter Greene manages to make the police detective seem like a legitimate character until the script leaves him high and dry. Corin Nemec and Brad Dourif also manage to fill up a couple of unnecessary roles with some wit and flair.In addition, Shadow Hours has an appreciable amount of female nudity, more than a hint of sexual perversion and some interesting snippets of dialog about the nature of life and human existence…or at least what passes for it in L.A.All in all, this is a low-budget, independent production that was worth making and worth watching. There are an awful lot of movies that don't reach that fairly low bar, so if you see Shadow Hours sitting on the shelf at your local video store, give it a try. It'll mostly likely be better than renting some other film you've never heard of.

It is a shame that Shadow Hours is kind of one of those rare thrillers that may have been sorta ignored during it's release, but it is perhaps one of the likable thrillers I have seen in recent years. Director and writer Isaac Eaton did a rather fine job at creating tension and keeping me interested through the story.Balthazar Getty in my opinion has been rather too underrated in films. This talented young actor did a good turning point here in Shadow Hours as the troubled Michael. Trying to straighten out his life, Michael has a new wife (Rebecca Gayheart) and a child on the way. He gets a job during the night shift and encounters a mysterious man named Stuart, (creepily portrayed by Peter Weller). They become close friends and they begin to experiment in the terrible parts of the city and Michael begins going downhill. Eventually Michael learns that Stuart could be a sociopath and he has to fight against him to get back to his life again.Shadow Hours should very well be viewed for those that are fans and are inspired by this kind of genre. The film also has a familiar cast in cameo appearances that include Peter Greene, Richard Moll (of TV's Night Court) and Oscar nominees Frederic Forrest and Brad Dourif.

Shadow Hours is the best movie Balthazar Getty has done since Lost Highway and is also probably the best movie Peter Weller has done since Robocop. Anyone who has spent considerable time within a major city nightlife scene will be able to identify with this movie. People who also like a film to leave a few questions unanswered will also probably get a kick out of Shadow Hours.The film has a great look to it, this film is so much slicker looking than any recent mainstream or indie film in the past few years. This is probably the slickest looking movie Ive seen since Blade. Kudos to the director and dp. The soundtrack is top notch as well. Weller is in top form here, his unique look and commanding voice really make his character. Getty gives a good performance as well. The cast of supporting characters is really amazing. Every few minutes you will see a familiar face pop up in a small role.The only small problem I have with the film is that a few scenes referenced other movies a little too blatantly, but the film's main story is very original and intrigueing. Overall it is a great little movie with alot of style and a thought provoking story. It was great to see a movie made for adults compared to all the pg-13 bland entertainment that the gutless hollywood studios have been releasing lately.This film is no direct to video cheapie my friends.