- Actors: Camilla Belle, Sara Paxton, Teri Hatcher, Devon Werkheiser, Sean Marquette
- Director: Fernando Lebrija
- Disc Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Widescreen
- Language: English
- Region: Region 1
- Number of discs: 1
- Rated: R
- Studio: LIONSGATE
- DVD Release Date: August 16, 2016
- Run Time: 102 minutes
Sundown has all of the expected elements
of a teen sex comedy without any of the creativity or good will that may have
been its saving grace. Instead, all we are left with are a series of cliché
situations, derivative plot twists, and atrocious stereotyping for nearly every
character involved. Women exist in the narrative primarily to be ogled and/or
saved, and nearly every ethnic character in the Puerto Vallarta setting seems to fall into
one of Trump’s categorizations of Mexicans. All of this may have been slightly
more excusable if there were anything remotely sexy or funny about this sex
comedy.
The film follows
generic teen friends Logan (Devon Werkheiser) and Blake (Sean Marquette) on an
impromptu spring break in Mexico
after their original plans fall through. Logan
has a crush on a popular girl at his school (Sara Paxton), despite knowing
nothing about her personality that he hasn’t learned by leering from afar.
Paxton’s involvement in this film is puzzling, as her character provides little
more than the occasional eye candy. The character of Blake provides the
opposite side of this dynamic, the slightly-chubby sidekick seeming to exist
for the mere purpose of spouting derogatory language at scantily clad females
with every opportunity.
Despite Logan’s obtusely sincere
infatuation, the bland protagonist finds himself in bed with a local prostitute
named Gaby (Camilla Belle), who steals his father’s borrowed Rolex watch as
payment. The plot very quickly begins to resemble Risky Business across the border, without any of the charm or
narrative competence. Logan
is forced to team up with Gaby, who is unsurprisingly looking for a way to
escape her ruthless pimp (Jordi Mollá), in order to retrieve the watch and
return home before his parents realize he was gone.
Even though much
of Sundown feels like an attempt to
advertise Puerto Vallarta
as a hip vacation destination for EDM-loving party teens, the depiction of
actual Mexicans is horribly inaccurate. Forgiving the existence of prostitutes
and pimps as primarily local characters, the casting of Belle as a Mexican is
an atrocious decision. The young American actress uses a forced Mexican accent
which is so ineffective that I was convinced her character would admit to lying
about her nationality up to the moment the credits began to roll. The one wise
casting choice was the inclusion of actual Mexican actor, Silverio Palacios,
even though his amiable character is basically just a thieving cab driver
taking advantage of the stupid foreigners.
To top off the
idiocy of Sundown is an EDM subplot
in which Logan
uses his abilities as a DJ to win over both of the love interests in the
narrative. This basically just feels like pandering to the current popular
trends of teens, going so far as to include cameos from some real-life DJs.
Anyone willing to watch this garbage simply because Steve Aoki shows up on
screen for a few minutes deserves the stench. It took several years of
post-production and even some re-shoots before Sundown whimpered out onto DVD, and much of the cast should simply
hope that it is forgotten in much less time.
The DVD release
comes with a Digital HD copy of the film, for those who want it. The disc
special features include a handful of deleted scenes and a behind-the-scenes
featurette. All I wanted was an interview with the casting director, Mexican
filmmaker Fernando Lebrija, or anyone else who could explain the logic of
Camilla Belle’s awful accent.
Entertainment Value:
4.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 3/10
Historical
Significance: 0/10
Special Features: 3/10
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