Painkillers: DVD Review
Arriving on DVD this week is the sci-fi flick “Painkillers”, which stars Tahmoh Penikett (“Battlestar Galactica”), Lesley-Ann Brandt (“Lucifer”), Colm Feore (“Gotham”), Erica Durance (“Smallville”), and directed by Peter Winther. I am not sure what happened with Winther over the years. In the 1990s he helped produce such films as “Stargate”, “Independence Day”, “Godzilla” and “The Patriot”. The following decade he began producing and directing forgettable made-for-TV projects. Now we get to “Painkillers” which Winther also wrote and I must say, it’s pretty terrible.
After a classified mission in Afghanistan goes terribly wrong, Major Cafferty (Penikett) and his team of maries find themselves in a hospital with absolutely no memory of the mission. With the help of Dr. Troutman (Feore), they slowly begin to recall the events of the mission. However, the experimental drug they are being given has some dangerous side effects, which begin to make some of them crazy. Once Cafferty stops taking the meds, he begins to discover that the hospital and its staff are not what they appear to be.
“Painkillers” has a decent cast for this level of production, but they are unable to help make the movie any easier to watch. There isn’t a painkiller strong enough to help with the suffering through “Painkillers”.
By: Marc Ferman