Connery's son deserves sympathy for inept work

The Devil's Tomb Director: Jason Connery Starring: Cuba Gooding Jr., Valerie Cruz, Ron Perlman Sometimes you just can't help feeling sorry for the children of superstars. Poor Jason Connery, the son of Scottish screen legend Sean, has had a long but undistinguished career as an actor, inevitably overshadowed by his more famous father. With this contemporary horror yarn he makes the transition to film director, but sadly proves even more inept behind the camera than in front.

Despite a smattering of well-respected stars in its cast, The Devil's Tomb is a shockingly bad B-movie. Cuba Gooding Jr plays a hard-nosed US army captain leading a ragtag band of soldiers on a secret mission to rescue a missing scientist from an underground desert laboratory beneath a remote Middle Eastern war zone. Once inside, the team encounter creepy hallucinations, killer zombies and worse.

Of course, had they bothered to watch Aliens, Event Horizon or any number of cheesy old horror films, these unwise intruders might have taken this welcome as a cue to leave immediately. Instead, they trade groaningly clichéd dialogue while waiting to be picked off, one by one. The oddest aspect of this derivative and cheap-looking exercise in schlock is the cast. Gooding is a former Oscar winner, while Ray Winstone and Ron Perlman also have small roles. Why are capable, credible performers slumming it in a film full of boil-covered zombies who appear to have been smeared with strawberry jam?

Maybe it was the Connery brand name which attracted them. Whatever the reason, nobody escapes this amateurish piece of junk with their reputations intact. Avoid.