Stuck

We're treated to a chilling scene within the first few minutes of Stuck. Nurse's aide Brandi Boski (Mena Suvari) must hose down a retirement home resident who shat himself again. If the sight of a feces-streaked old man's keister doesn't send you running for the hills, you're in for another 90 minutes of crap.

Stuck is based on the true story of the 2001 crime committed by Chante Mallard, a Texan woman who hit a homeless man with her car and left him to die lodged in her windshield. In this fictional treatment of the case, the homeless man, Thomas Bardo (played by Oscar-nominated actor Stephen Rea), fights back. Well, as much as one can while wedged in a windshield.

One of the most ludicrous aspects of Stuck is Suvari's character, Brandi. Since Mallard is African-American, we're puzzled as to why writer/director Stuart Gordon didn't write Brandi as a white girl or just hire a black actress. Instead, they try to skirt the issue by having Suvari sport braids and wear fake nails; her boyfriend and best friend are also both black. The initial scene is supposed to establish her as an empathetic human, and later scenes with her boss are supposed to show she's determined, hard-working, and in line for a promotion. Instead, she spends much of her screen time with Rea wide-eyed and yelling at him things like, "Why are you doing to this me?" while he bleeds on her front seat. To her credit, she has an amazing cat fight, which involves a frying pan, with a naked woman she finds in her boyfriend's bed. This is the best part of the movie.

Gordon, the man behind such horror-schlock classics as Re-Animator and Dagon, has attempted to make Stuck a gory thriller laced with dark humor, but has only succeeded in making a cheesy movie that's just bad enough not to be boring.