So I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but somehow I ended up seeing “Gothika” today. It was as bad as they say – terrible dialogue, annoying performances all around, and a never-ending parade of cliches. Plus, not a scary scene in the whole thing (although the extreme close-up of Charles S. Dutton frenching Halle Berry was deeply unsettling).
But there was one huge WTF? moment:
As Halle Berry discovers a secret room where girls have been brought to be raped and murdered and videotaped, the camera pans over all the equipment used in the torture. By the bed is a big medical bag full of drugs, presumably to sedate the girls. In there, big as day, is a big box of “Gas-X.” Gas-X. The anti-gas medicine.
So again, WTF? The only guesses I have:
- The most horribly misguided product placement attempt in cinema history.
- A joke on the part of the prop guys, which fails twice because it’s not funny and it’s tasteless.
- Something bizarre about the product that I don’t know about and I’m not sure I want to know about.