It’s the Case of the Vanishing Movie Stars… or the Mystery of the Missing Screentime… or maybe just a lot of bad editing and short shrifted script. This movie is a bit of a mess on a directing and editing standpoint but mainly a failure as a script.

Midnight in the Switchgrass allegedly stars Bruce Willis and Megan Fox but really stars Emile Hirsch. All three are on the hunt for a killer who is offing prostitutes in Florida. Lukas Haas plays the creepy serial killer.

I rented this movie partly because I had just recently seen Fox in Till Death and Rogue, both of which I rather enjoyed so was hoping to see if she could continue her mini-renaissance. Alas, she’s rather wooden in the part – trying to play a tough, no-nonsense FBI agent. Sometimes she’s ok, sometimes she’s stiff. But that’s ok since the movie decides to take their ball-busting, woman-rescuing heroine and kidnap and chain her up so she has no agency. Good job in your movie about exploited and terrorized women, movie.

Instead it’s Emile Hirsch who gets the most screen time and he’s fine in the movie. He’s got maybe one scene of real dramatic acting and is otherwise just going through the motions.

Both actors appear to exist in a script that wanted to give them more time to tell their backstories and justify some emotional monologs/scenes. But this movie has no time for its characters, really. Reminds me that Bruce Willis is front and center on the cover but I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn he peaces out after about five minutes of screen time. He’ll live to smirk another day.

There are a couple suspenseful scenes in the flick but mainly the directing and editing fail due to really awkward editing and scene transitions plus an over-abundance of flashbacks to scenes we saw a few minutes earlier. Really the filmmaking is kind of amateurish. Along with the script. And some of the acting. Am I sure this is a two star flick?

So this is basically a dud of a movie. The only reason it doesn’t get a lower score is that I could see the bones of a better movie here and individual scenes look competently shot. And the actors are largely trying, to the extent they are in the movie at all. But really no reason to bother. There are better murder/suspense/thrillers out there.

Score: 68