Not Quite Visionary
In the not so distant future people are able to broadcast everything they see thanks to a high tech contact lens which transmits everything and shows it on their channel. Wyatt Maddox (Taylor Handley) makes a living by doing this as his exploits with partner in crime Tara (Kate French) as they boost fast cars and broadcast their fun attracts thousands of visitors to their channel and that means sponsors. But when Wyatt is killed following his latest joyride his brother Jonah (Dominic DeVore), a soldier, returns home and with the help of Tara masquerades as Wyatt, broadcasting what he sees over his brother's channel to try and lure out who ever it was who killed him.
The opening to "Channeling", which is also shown as "De@th on Live", is pretty decent as we are introduced to this world of high tech contact lenses where those who are savvy can use them to broadcast what they see and do so to an online audience. I don't know whether that technology is already available or in the works but I can imagine there would be some major players in the tech world who are working on this as it would open up so many opportunities and a lot more easier than strapping a camera to your head.
But the thing is that whilst "Channeling" has this entertaining idea and starts the movie with a decent action scene what follows is pretty ordinary. By that what we have is a movie where a brother is drawn into this world where you channel what you see as he along with his brother's sexy online partner try to find out who was behind his murder. Yes it throws some action at us, some fast cars and a short sex scene but the whole thing is text book and in truth a waste of a decent set up.
The annoying this is that "Channeling" doesn't feel like a cheap movie, the action is pretty nicely shot and the camera work on the whole is good. But it just fails to come to life and sadly part of that is down to the acting which whilst adequate is nothing special. Let me put this bluntly, Kate French is the most memorable thing about "Channeling" for the simple reason she makes Tara hot and I say that because unfortunately the character doesn't have any depth, no back story and so she is all about being hot. It is the same with all the characters and attempts to try and give some depth to Wyatt, Jonah and also their sister fails to be anything more than padding.
What this all boils down to is that "Channeling" is in truth not a bad movie, but it is one which whilst having a nice idea ends up failing to do anything special with it, ending up a movie which trades on a few action scenes and the hotness of one of the characters.
