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49%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #2,377
...out of 20,869 movies
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To the students of the Spenser Academy, the Sons of Ipswich are the baddest boys on campus. But that's not all they share. The four friends also share a 300-year-old secret: they're warlocks, the teenage descendants of a 17th-century coven of witches. So when the long-banished fifth son suddenly appears and threatens to kill their loved ones, they realize they must face their enemy in order to prevent him from stealing their powers and shattering the covenant forever.
--IMDb
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I guess the big surprise here is that I didn't hate "The Covenant" quite as much as I was expecting to hate it. I was expecting something on the lines of "The Hitcher" remake or "Soul Survivors", and it didn't quite live up to those dreadful expectations. "The Covenant" is directed by Renny Harlin, who might be either the worst or unluckiest director working today. He has good in him, but a whole lot of bad. Despite that, this film opened to #1 at the box office and set the record for the lowest opening weekend gross for a film to open at #1 in history, so you kind of have to think that was a mixed bag. "The Covenant" is brought to us by Screen Gems, and the special effects look like they came right out of Screen Gems, with Renny Harlin trying hard to keep the action high.
The film tells the story of the 5 families of Ipswitch Colony, which is where the witch trials began. These families kept their powers secret and have had a 'covenant' ever since. Steven Strait is Caleb Danvers, the leader of the covenant, who is both good looking and the most powerful. Taylor Kitsch is Pogue Parry, Caleb's best friend and the biker of the lot. Toby Hemingway is Reid Garwin, the rebel and troublemaker, and Chace Crawford is Tyler Simms, the weaker of the group and follower. When a boy turns up dead, the victim of someone with powers, the boys soon discover a new kid, Chase Collins (Sebastian Stan) is responsible -- turns out he's the fifth family of the covenant and has more power than anything of them -- and he wants more. What ensues is a battle between he and Caleb over who has the most power and who knows how to use it the best.
The plot description was far more generous than it should have been. "The Covenant" is basically an excuse for five gorgeous guys to run around beating each other up and get wet. There is so much homoeroticism running around in this film -- it's hysterical. There's even a kiss between two of them, oddly enough. What hurts the film the most is the inexperience of the actors. Steven Strait is as stiff as a board as Caleb, Sebastian Stan us way too over the top as Chase, especially in his scene with the motorcycle. The rest of the cast just survive, with Toby Hemingway seeming the most convincing of the lot. Wendy Crewson pops up in a thankless role, and Laura Ramsey really has nothing to do but look upset and frightened most of the time. The other problem is that there is just not anything scary in this film. It's more like an action film than a horror film.
In many ways, "The Covenant" suffers the same fate as Harlin's previous film, "Mindhunters". The art direction and set design are very interesting. He did a good job creating an atmosphere, and he really conveys the sense of a college town here. The lighting is also interesting -- far better than it should have been. But he resorts to typical scares with heightened music and 'boos' from random people. His special effects look generic most of the time and take us out of the action. I wish I could say this is one of Renny Harlin's worst, but it's not. It has more potential, for sure. A new cast would be the first step. "The Covenant" was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but it was still pretty bad. I don't recommend it unless you want to watch hot guys for two hours swimming and fighting and jumping around. If you do, this film's for you.
4/10.
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#1:
Edd
- added September 16, 2007 at 2:59pm
This was like a new age type live-action
Dragonball Z movie. I think if they expanded it
for a trilogy, it could have really gone far. Very
bad though. 3/10
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#2:
Lucid Dreams
- added December 28, 2009 at 4:32pm
One of the worst movies I have ever seen. 1/10
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#3:
Crispy
- added July 20, 2011 at 2:39am
Agreeing with Billy Ray 100% here. Don't think it
quite earned the hate it receives, but it didn't
earn too much praise either. I don't regret
watching it, but I'll never feel the need to watch
it again. 4/10
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