Momentum: This movie didn't really have any...

I don

For a made-for-tv movie, Momentum isn't half bad. You can do the math on how good it is.

It's got a lot going for it, including a strong cast. We have Teri Hatcher, who I remember from Lois And Clark and Tomorrow Never Dies and refuse to watch in Desperate Housewives. She plays an FBI agent who somehow is famous, and struggling to do her job despite that. We get a flash of a magazine cover to explain why that is, but I missed it, and wasn't interested enough to rewind the DVR to try and read it. She's tough, believably smart, and likable, especially when paired up with her smart ass partner, played by Carmen Argenziano. He plays the wise mentor to her younger character, has a catchphrase that quickly gets irritating, but makes up for it by being funny just about every other time you see him.

Louis Gossett Jr is great in his role, at that same time as he's horribly wasted. He plays the big bad evil government guy who has to cover up the secret program that created super powerful telekinetics who are at the heart of the plot. He lurks around corners and in shadows, and commands his minions to do his dirty work. He never takes off his fedora or trench coat. His lines are all trite, but he still delivers them with a gravelly voice that makes you feel like you're about to have bamboo shoved under your fingernails. He plays bad guy well, but he deserves so much better than this.

Grayson McCouch plays the lead, Zach, who is a physics professor trying to lead a normal life despite his lifelong gift/curse of telekinesis. He gets recruited by Louis Gossett Jr's character to infiltrate the gang of rebel telekinetics and lead him to them. Naturally he falls in love with (i.e. 'has sex with') the daughter of the leader, and then has torn loyalties. Plus there's the fact he realizes these people are being hunted down and killed, which puts a cloud over that whole 'bring in the bad guys' idea, since it makes the government out as the bad guy. McCouch doesn't have enough charisma to pull this role off, and my attention constantly wandered when the story focused on him. Since he's the star, that happened a lot.

The rest of the cast all put on very good performances for the roles they were given, so there's nothing wrong with the movie in that department. Even the plot, while nothing new, is interesting enough to keep my attention, and even would have worked if spun off into a series, like I suspected they were going for. The lack of any special effects probably kept the budget down, because other than making sure no one sees the people pushing the huge armored car that is supposed to be 'mind over matter'ed, and a few pyrotechnics, there's not much to worry about. It's sometimes a little silly to watch someone stare at an object all intense like, and have it fly around, but most of the times the actors pull it off with appropriate flair.

Basically what keeps this from being a winner that I simply must own is what kills a lot of made-for-tv movies. It's just too tame. They throw in some curse words, for the DVD release, I'm sure, but that's not enough to create real intensity. The characters are mildly likable, but just not that interesting. It feels more like a live action cartoon than a movie, with it's soft violence and ambiguous foes. At the end, even with a tragic event, it just doesn't grab you and make you feel anything other than a vague "Oh, is that it?" wonderment.

Momentum is worth one viewing, if only to give props to Louis Gossett Jr. This is before Teri Hatcher got Desperate, so she isn't scary skinny and trying too hard to be cute. Just make sure you have a strong cup of coffee, or a 2 liter of Mountain Dew handy, because I fell sound asleep in the middle of this movie the first time I watched it. It's an action/drama movie that made me feel that safe, and that ain't a good thing for an action/drama movie, is it?