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STUDIO: Magnolia Home Entertainment
MSRP: $24.99
RATED: R
RUNNING TIME: 107 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Behind-the-scenes featurette
Deleted scenes
Casting sessions
Trailer

The Pitch

And you thought the flight was bad?

The Humans

Peyton List, Tony Curran, Cameron Goodman, Cullen Douglas, Dave Power, James Snyder

The Nutshell

A group of strangers, two girls (List, Goodman) and two guys (Power, Snyder), decide to take a shuttle from the airport after a return trip from Mexico.  What they don’t realize, however, is that this is no ordinary shuttle and the driver is going to do things far worse to them than just mishandle their luggage.


No doubt, the Method 101 class at the Elisha Cuthbert School of the Arts was a bitch…

The Lowdown

Shuttle is a fairly low-key yet somewhat satisfying little thriller that was probably shot on a shoe-string budget.  Nevertheless, director Edward Anderson manages to craft a tense, although at times illogical story that falls into a few of the normal cliches assorted with this type of film, but also manages to skirt several others and shake up expectations.  Upon viewing, one might think that the hijacked characters would react more proactively against their assailant.  That is until realizing that that way would be the overplayed Hollywood movie way, and that in reality any one of us would probably too friggin’ scared to breathe let alone play Batman in that situation.  So character motivations here actually fall more toward real life expectations. 

Performances all around are serviceable if unspectacular.  Anderson, who also wrote, didn’t really breathe a lot of memorable qualities into the characters, except for one of the victims who’s a poonhound; and you know how those usually end up in these types of movies.  However, with the Driver (Curran), he’s a more sedate character than you’d expect.  He’s not what you think he
is (well he is and he isn’t) and he’s not a polished villain and
actually has quite a bit of difficulty throughout the pic.  It turns out he’s not some garden variety psychopath, but rather a guy just trying to make it through his average day.  Although that day just happens to involve kidnapping and murder.

Shuttle has a nicely disturbing ending that’s reminiscent of a certain archaeologist hero’s most famous movie and I’m glad that Anderson was able to bring some originality in this regard.  Shuttle’s a good example of how to do a fairly compelling film with limited locations and characters and would make a good weekend rental.


The Package

Shuttle has a fairly washed out look that adds a suitable atmosphere and the sound is available in Dolby 5.1 and 2.0.  But the dialogue can get maddeningly low at times and there’s only Spanish subtitles to help you.  In terms of special features, there’s a five minute behind-the-scenes featurette that’s barely worth the watch, four minutes of deleted scenes, casting sessions with all of the actors and a trailer. 

 6.3 out of 10