The Shaft - aka - Down (2001)

Don't look down, the first step's a doozy - aka - Do yourself a favor...
take the stairs.

Director: Dick Maas.

Starring: Dan Hedaya, Edward Herman, Michael Ironside, James Marshall, Ron Perlman, Eric Thal, Naomi Watts.

Ron Perlman as Mitchell

The elevators in one of New York city's most popular business and tourist attraction skyscrapers begin to kill people. It takes a "goof off but great in a crisis" (is there any other kind of goof off in movies?) elevator repair man (Marshall) and a spunky female reporter (is there any other kind of female reporter in movies?) (Watts) to prove that the cause is something other than faulty circuits or sabotage and more along the lines of thinking, man made evil.

This is a slow moving film with stock characters, average performances from the leads, and some good actors (Herman, Ironside, Perlman) in small roles. It's a B- TV quality movie. Don't mind mindless horror movies and home sick from work? That's the kind of time to watch this film. The spookiest thing about this movie is that it mentions terrorism, Osama Bin Laden, the 1993 attack on the Towers, and came out about five days before September 11, 2001. That kind of creepy can't be written.

Ron Perlman plays the owner of the elevator repair company. Bad news: he's in about three scenes. Good news: one of them is a good one with Michael Ironside.

Availability: VHS and DVD. Suggest: Amazon.com. I've bought from Amazon for years, new and used, and have had no problems. Please remember to check that the VHS/DVD is compatible to your country/region.

Rent or buy for the same price as a rent if you must have it for your RP collection.

By Tressa Lee Breen.


VIDEO
(No image available)

VHS, NTSC - Close-captioned
Amazon.com

VHS, NTSC - Spanish subtitles
Amazon.com


DVD


DVD Region 1 - Close-captioned
Amazon.com

DVD Region 1
Amazon.ca

DVD Region1 - Close-captioned
Amazon.co.uk

DVD Region 2 - Widescreen
Amazon.co.uk

For the Perlman Pages section on "The Shaft" click HERE

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