Final Move (DVD)

Somewhat reminiscent of Dario Argento's The Card Player — that is, if it were a made-for-Lifetime movie of the week — is Final Move, directed by Joey Travolta and starring one of the ex Mrs. Rod Stewarts. Doesn't sound too good, does it?

And you know what? It's not. The melodrama masquerading as a horror/thriller follows a clairvoyant cop called Marlowe (Matt Schulze) who was left an emotional wreck by a serial-killer case involving a chess-obsessed slasher. The murderer's been caught and executed, but Marlowe's instincts tell him something's not right. So, he quits the force and checks himself into his local mental health facility.

He's forced to come out of self-imposed retirement when another killing that bears a striking similarity to the chess killer's M.O. comes to light (hm, never heard of a movie based on that premise). The still mentally-frazzled Marlowe reteams with his former colleagues, Detective Krieg (a semi-comatose Lochlyn Munro) and Agent Quarrie (a haggard-looking Rachel Hunter), tries to put the pieces of his marriage (to a wife played surprisingly flatly by the usually vibrant Amanda Detmer) together, and switches back and forth between his confused look and his worried look as the film drags on.

Much more an angst-filled chick flick (albeit from a guy's perspective) than a gory serial slayer yarn, Final Move is not quite horrible; but why bother with it when you can rent The Night Listener or The Illusionist this week instead?

There is no additional release material on the DVD.

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