DVD review (region 2)
Directed by Brett A Hart
Starring Luke Goss, Lance Henriksen, Dee Wallace
Release date 26 December 2007

A businessman named Eddie (Luke Goss) is stranded in the Mojave Desert and stalked by a mysterious, shotgun-wielding assailant calling himself Jimmy (Lance Henriksen), who puts Eddie through a series of torturous challenges…

Bone Dry's billing as 'Saw meets Duel' serves as an apt description of the plot but it rules out much chance of originality. It also falls short in the suspense stakes. Brett Hart’s over-cooked, shot-on-HD-video treatment of a skeletal storyline is mostly a two-header between ex-Bros singer Goss and genre veteran Henriksen. Left with only a compass and walkie-talkie to guide him, Eddie is teased and tortured by 'Jimmy' as he struggles across "200 miles of nothing" in baking heat.

It continues along predictable lines and seems to be a typical cautionary tale to over-ambitious travellers and yet another reason to dislike 4x4 drivers. Like the Saw franchise, though, there's a twist, and it's quite clever. That said, Goss, who was fine in a supporting role in Blade II, is not riveting enough to carry a movie almost solely on his sunburnt shoulders. Some audience members may appreciate the actor's nude scene, but not that much, because Eddie is shackled around a giant cactus at the time (ouch!).

Extras include a Henriksen-Hart commentary, a solitary deleted scene and an unstructured, cheapo 20-minute making of. Ian Calcutt

VERDICT: 5/10
From its ostentatious quotations at the start to the absurdly overblown director's credit at the end, Bone Dry is often too showy for its own good given the simplistic plot.