Movie Review: 31 (2016)

31 may be the most Rob Zombie film ever made. It’s definitely not his best, and it’s probably not his worst, but holy shit, does it feel like a Rob Zombie movie. Most of the characters feel like they belong in any one of the Firefly trilogy, and a lot of the movie has the same sun-soaked feel as those movies. Plus there’s plenty of awful, profanity-filled dialogue.

It’s a Most Dangerous Game-type plot, with a group of pot smokers being kidnapped and forced to compete in a game of 31, where a series of killers is sent after them.

And for whatever reason, the game is overseen by Malcolm McDowell and friends dressed in 18th century French aristocratic outfits.

The world doesn’t seem fully fleshed out. We never really learn why they’re having the game to begin with, how many people are participating in such a game. There’s just a lot of information that we never get.

The scenes when the killers are attacking are not particularly well filmed. It’s often disorienting, as you can’t easily tell what’s going on.

The real saving grace here is Richard Brake as the baddest of the killers, Doom-Head.

He’s featured in the opening scene, which is the best scene of the movie. Then he disappears really until the third act, where it picks up again. When he’s not on screen, quite frankly the movie isn’t that interesting.

Rating: 4/10