Nine Dead (US) - An interesting puzzle but lame ending

 Nine Dead
Synopsis:
The movie started with a hooded & masked kidnapper kidnapping various individuals while they are eating, with friends, in car basement, and etc. A total of nine strangers are being caught and held in an enclose room in an abandon warehouse. The kidnapper then inform all the 9 strangers that they have 10 minutes to discuss and tell him why they are all here. If the strangers are unable to answer his question, then each one will die and the clock will reset back to 10 minutes and the same question will be posed again. All nine people will be killed if they are unable to find out the answer in time and if they managed to answer it, then the kidnapper will surrender to the police and release them. The 9 individuals are an (1) actor (wannabe), (2) deputy prosecutor, (3) cop, (4) stripper owner, (5) black guy with criminal record, (6) pedophile, (7) insurance agent, (8) chinese lady who doesn't speak english  and (9) a priest. As the clock is ticking ,all of them overcome their background and their differences to find out why they were locked up by provided information on what they had done previously that might have cause this.  As each tries to solve the puzzle, one-by-one, the kidnapper came in, shot and killed one of the strangers but not before whispering to them the answer. So, are they able to solve the case before they are being killed or manage to uncover the secret that lies behind their kidnapping.
Review:
The premise and the set-up of the movie is nice. The story is also quite interesting and the characters are never dull. Of course in the beginning, the movie likens Saw franchises but it is never heavy on the gore but more on the solving of the puzzle. In the beginning, the movie looks a bit amateur and looks a bit cheap like a made for TV movie while the kidnapping is going on. But as the 9 individuals are being held, then the movie starts to look promising. There are some quirky dialogue and intelligent one liners. However, i felt that some of the individuals are not being used enough and do not have much script to work on. So, some of them merely picking on their handcuff and some just walk around and i thought that they were going to find a way to escape. I felt that Melissa Joan Hart acting is not so good in this movie, in fact i felt that she talks way to fast and almost sounded like she was bitching rather than talking. At one point, some of the story does stray, basically to fill-in the time slot of the movie but luckily it didn't sway that much. Also, due to its cheap budget, i saw a deja vu where they show the abandon warehouse with a car passing by, then again the same clip of the warehouse and car passing by. This is pretty lame and cheap. Overall, this movie is not as bad as i thought it would be. In fact, i was kept guessing why the 9 people are locked up and i did guess the answer correctly during the final quarter of the movie before it was reveal. The end is quite lousy and it should have ended with a good big bang, but it falls short.

Verdict:

I give this movie a 2.5 star over 5.