Ever since he broke through with the Mad Max movies Mel Gibson has been a reliable name above many good movies, mostly action oriented ones. But ever since the so-so Signs he disappeared from in front of the camera an reappeared behind it directing the religious torture-porn The Passion Of The Christ and the Maya torture-porn Apocalypto. That and appearing in tabloids due to his drunken misbehavior resulting in antisemitic rants. But now Mel is back in a role suited form him. A father searching for the killer(s) of his daughter in a surprisingly low-key performance.

There are two kinds of religious movies; one that push an agenda of religion, and one that uses faith as a plot device to tell a story. The Matrix in a way has this as Neo is some sort of Jesus whose birth and potential has been foretold. The other are movies the propaganda kind like Fireproof which tries to bring a message just on how good religion is. The first can be very movies while the latter kind mostly sucks and feel like the message is more important than the quality of the story. The Book Of Eli fits into the first category though it does have a firm religious undertone throughout the whole movie.

Last year Pierre Morel surprised me with Taken. An action movie resembling those that have been made with the same skill back in the 80's. It was a pleasant surprise and the same team behind that movie is back with From Paris with Love. This time writer Luc Besson and director Morel have John Travolta at their service, who gives us one of his more energetic performances as CIA agent Charlie Wax. At one point after beating the shit out of a group of armed thugs with his bare hands he says to his new partner Reece (Rhys Meyers) "Now tell me that shit isn't impressive" I have to agree: despite the hyper-kinetic editing we've gotten used to by now it was one of the many moments in the movie that put a smile to my face.

I'm seriously in doubt here whether I should or should not reveal who the killer is in Return to Sleepaway Camp. When reviewing a movie you should try to steer away from spoilers as much as possible but one of the biggest flaws of the movie is the killer's identity. The moment this person appears on screen I slapped myself in the face and screamed at the screen; seriously? They think they can get away with that?
Unfortunately the rest of the 65 minutes the movie lasts it tries to present another character as the potential killer at which it fails, not only because of someone else already has a sign above his/her head stating "I'm the killer", but also because this character is utterly incompetent. So incompetent he could hardly fake it.