HYBRID

I got a new car recently. Nothing special, to be honest but it came with the usual extras; Passenger air bags, electric windows and air conditioning. One notable absentee from the list of perks was a snarling nest of alien vipers under the hood...

After some superb birds eye views of Chicago’s swirling highways by night, our narrative begins when an unmanned black automobile seemingly spots a couple of late night revellers fresh from a night of clubbing. The two men are oblivious as the infrared tinted ‘car vision’ tracks them before morphing into a sleek red sports car. The lustrous vehicle easily seduces the fun hungry pair by offering itself complete with keys in the ignition! Although one of the young men believes it to be a heinous trap left by the law enforcement’s night shift, the other convinces him it’s a case of some rich guy who needs an insurance pay-out. No sooner have they perched their posteriors on the sumptuous leather bucket seats that the car traps them. Not only does the doors slam shut – they are also bereft of any means of exit. Panic really sets in when the keys, perplexingly, vanish from the ignition. But their vehicular incarceration doesn’t last too long – within seconds they are devoured from within the car despite their bloodied hands fruitlessly banging on the fasten windows…

Maybe it was the excess "E numbers" within its meal that turns the murderous car a little hyper, for after its human snack, it plays havoc in the traffic, haphazardly snaking and careening amongst the late night traffic. Such undue care and attention leads to the mysterious car ignoring a ‘STOP’ sign and, as a result, has another car smash into its side. Ooops! A tow truck and short journey later and the injured car winds up at an all-night garage.

It’s a promising, well shot start to the movie that suggested, providing we go with the notion of a shape shifting serial killer car, we could be in a for a fun hour and a half. Unfortunately it’s pretty much downhill from there like a Ford Escort on a slope without the handbrake on!

We are soon introduced to the main cast. There is Tilda (Shannon Beckner), the hard working heroine who is supporting her sloth boyfriend by means of cramming in as many shifts as possible. Maria, the fishnet clad secretary who must have masters in sarcasm judging by the scornful tone in everything that leaves her mouth! Ray (Oded Fehr), an ambitious slave driver boss who needs things done "on the double". He also doesn’t like the idea of junkies entering his garage while his team burn the midnight car oil. So he does what any rational manager would do – he welds the doors shut! Bobby and Gordy complete the night-time crew.

I could allow Tilda’s transformation from night clerk to Lara Croft. I could forgive the rather lame script. "You wanna blow my head off – that’s not nice". (!!) I was even prepared to go with the beast under the bonnet. The snapping jaws crammed with sharp teeth leering forward from the mass of tentacles, which was a rather crass and unconvincing use of CGI, had a clear Achilles heel. It was melded to the confines of an automobile. BURN THE BLOODY THING!!! But even this wasn’t my biggest gripe.

What I mean is, here we have a movie featuring a fusion of alien and vehicle that had the ability to morph at will with a penchant for human flesh. Imagine the all-out carnage this could cause in the land of the free!!! But instead the Super Hybrid is frustratingly restricted to chasing some irritating individuals in a locked garage!

I dare say budgetary restrictions were the reason for this but the concept had real potential that lacked the turbo boost to raise it above average.

That said, HYBRID is not a terrible movie. It had a very crisp look to it and the night scenes in particular were fantastically clear.

If you like American automobiles there were a few guises of the ‘car’ itself that were great to admire. From unbranded "Lo riders" to plush sports cars the metamorphic antics were one of the movies highlights. I personally had a partiality to the matt black Pontiac-esque effort. If Knight Rider was ‘driven’ by David Hasslehoff, then this baby would have been driven by Lemmy from Motorhead!!!

The gore was relatively tame and mostly limited to a few splashes of blood on the cars windows although there was a standout burning sequence which took me by surprise. Even with that, the 15 certificate is a fair reflection in this respect.

If you like cool cars and are happy to let your brain go into cruise control for 100 minutes or so you may well be entertained by this nonsensical feature that, admittedly, isn’t a Jaguar – but is not quite a Skoda either!

Review by Marc Lissenburg