The DVD company called The Asylum has been building a reputation lately of simply knocking off the most recent Hollywood genre movies with low budget copies. They have been shameless in their theft of cover art and of plot ideas and frankly I have been losing interest in their output. Still, I will occasionally check out one of their releases and see what they are up to. Angels Crest is one of their older releases from when they were more interested in releasing original material rather than stuff like Hillside Cannibals and King Of The Lost World.

Currie Graham (from the final season of NYPD Blue) and Chris Bauer (from the excellent but cancelled Third Watch) star as a couple of carpool buddies named Richard and Teddy who decide to pull off the highway and check out the view on the way to work. After they realize that they won't be discovered if they are a little late, they decide to take a stroll through the forest so that Teddy can show Richard one of his favorite places to go when he needs to think about things. They end up in a beautiful part of the California forest complete with deer, a creek, and meadows. Things suddenly go pear-shaped when one of them decides that he has a beef with the other one that needs to be settled in a fairly dramatic manner that involves a tree, rope, and a shovel.

This is the kind of the movie that indie filmmakers should be making when they are short on cash and want to deliver a good flick. Rather than waving the "I had no money" white flag, director J. Michael Couto has identified the fact that he had a low budget and chosen to work with a script with only a couple of actors and locations. He then focused on developing the characters and the performances from the two leads rather than opt for cheesy CGI or extended torture scenes as is so often the case. I much prefer this approach than trying to be overambitious and then blaming your failed effort on the budget or copping out and going for cheap thrills as is becoming the norm in the world of indie filmmaking.

The performances from Graham and Bauer are what really made this movie stand out. I have been a big fan of Currie Graham for a while now and I think he is a much better actor than he is given credit for. I do not understand why this guy is only getting guest appearances on TV series when he could clearly be a great character actor. He has pretty much stolen the show in everything I have seen him in including a haunting performance in the short lived Iraq war drama Over There. This movie is no exception and you can't take your eyes off this guy. Chris Bauer also showed a lot more range than he was given in Third Watch and I thought he handled the material quite well although I had a bit of a hard time taking him seriously as a businessman. Bauer has a blue collar look and demeanor to him and he seemed slightly out of place wearing a suit.

This is by no means a fast paced movie. There is minimal action and the story is quite simple but we are brought into it first out of curiosity and then out of suspense. We are never sure how things are going to end and the story is told through a series of time cuts to help fit the pieces together. Unlike some films, the flashbacks are well placed and we discover that all the pieces fit together quite nicely. I hope that Couto ends up making more films (it has been five years since this one) as he obviously knows what he is doing as far as capturing the audience. It would be great to see what he could do with a larger budget. (Josh Pasnak, 8/20/06)

Directed By: J. Michael Couto.
Written By: J. Michael Couto, Grant Holly.

Starring: Currie Graham, Chris Bauer.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: This DVD looked pretty good. All of the film takes place outdoors and is well lit due to the sun so there is never really a concern with the picture being too dark. There are a few minor inconsistencies with the lighting but this is more a technical detail than a problem with the transfer from The Asylum.

Extras: We get a commentary from director Couto along with director of photography Cameron Cutler and editor Robert Komatsu. This was a nice companion piece to the film as they offer a number of anecdotes about the making of the film and the time constraints from making a film entirely outdoors during the day. They also tell us that all the effects were "old school" and there was no CGI in the film. This will always get bonus points from me. We also get a trailer as well as trailers for Murder By Design and The Code Conspiracy.

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