VANish

After a month and bit of watching purely Oscar nominated films it always takes a bit of getting used to, and is somewhat of a relief, delving back into standard action-thrillers. 'VANish' is obviously a long way from being Oscar material but it's still pretty good. The dialogue actually holds together really well for the most part and the story moves at a good pace. In fact the pace really does move along at supersonic speed. The film doesn't even reach 80 minutes but they could easily have panned it out to 90 if they'd wanted to with needless extra scenes and irrelevant dialogue (or heaven forbid an opening title sequence). Bravo to them for being happy with the runtime and not insulting the viewer.

"Girl Power" seems to be a large part of what director Bryan Bockbrader has gone for here and it works. Almost every male in the movie is a complete moron and the one and only female is a calm and competent woman who rules over them all (even when her hands are tied behind her back). That's not to say there's nothing for men to enjoy - there's more blood, guts and gore than your average thriller, that's for sure. Maiara Walsh did a very good job in the lead role and her acting seems to have taken a step in the right direction since I last saw her in 'Desperate Housewives'. All in all a nice surprise.