Stir of Echoes the Homecoming - Movie Review

Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming stars Rob Lowe as Captain Ted Cogan, a soldier who returns home from Iraq after being injured during combat. Upon his return home he is haunted by visions of the dead. This direct to video movie can definitely be skipped. If you really want to see it, just watch the first Stir of Echoes again.

Ted Cogan at first thinks his visions are just guilt induced because he issued a command in Iraq that resulted in the death of Iraq civilians. After gaining some insight from Jake Witzky, a character he meets who seems to be a supernatural expert; he realizes the dead are trying to tell him something. Just like any other movie where the dead speaks, a dead person is trying to get the main character to solve his murder. Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming did provide a nice twist with who the actual murderer was. I liked the surprise twist, but not enough to like the movie or recommend it to anyone I know.

I really enjoyed the first Stir of Echoes and was looking forward to this sequel. The plot did hold my attention for about 15 minutes, until Ted's welcome home party. The jokes told by his neighbors were pathetic. The actors who played his neighbors and friends were terrible. Even the actor who played his son was terrible. The only two good actors were Rob Lowe and the actress Marnie McPhail who plays his wife.

I really was about to chalk this movie up to a complete loss until I looked up the actors names on imdb.com. I read a review where a member pointed out that Jake Witzky is the son from the first Stir of Echoes. That little tidbit of information changed my opinion of the movie somewhat. Actually it makes me hate the movie all the more. His scene would have made much more sense to me if I would have known the connection to the first movie. The director really dropped the ball on that one. My memory for useless movie knowledge is pretty high but not high enough to remember every character's name from all my favorite movies.

My number one pet peeve of movies is inconclusive endings. Call me old fashion but I prefer to be told what happens to the characters at the end of the movie, not guess or speculate. The movie ends with Rob Lowe sitting at a desk in a locked room with glass windows waiting for someone. Is he in a psycho ward? Is he in a very nice prison? Is he waiting for his lawyer? What happens now that his life is completely destroyed? I cared for about two seconds. Now I just wish I would have never wasted my time on this silly excuse for a sequel.