The Caller

"On a dark and stormy night, a woman gets visit at her isolated cabin from a suspicious man who claims to have wrecked his car and needs to use her phone. It’s Malcolm McDowell and, because she has apparently never watched A Clockwork Orange, she lets him in. However, this isn’t your average home invasion movie. The conversation that follows is stilted and strange and it becomes obvious that there is more going on under the surface. The film is a talkey, stagey two-hander starring McDowell and Madolyn Smith. It veers from genre to genre as the plot unfurls. It has a fun, “WTF is going on here” vibe for the first act of the film. McDowell’s charisma keeps the energy up when it would flatlined in lesser hands. The way the film resolves doesn’t work…at….all. I also doubt the logic of the plot, scene to scene, would hold up to a 2nd viewing. However, the first half of the movie kept me engaged and the breadcrumbs that show the myriad of paths the film could have taken were enough for me to not label it a complete failure. I’ll give this unique and interesting but ultimately unsuccessful movie a 3.25 out of 5 stars."

"The most colorful, clever and quippy dialog. EVER. And a young (but older than “Alex” from A Clockwork Orange) Malcolm McDowell. The movie is a hybrid of clever and utterly silly. But it’s 1987. Take it easy and just enjoy the 80’s cinema goodness. Great cars in this film, too. "