Pet (2016)

After failing to nice guy his way into the life of pretty waitress Holly (Ksenia Solo), loser Seth (Dominic Monaghan) decides that maybe the correct approach would be to kidnap and keep her caged at the animal control center where he works. So he does that and what could very loosely be called a battle of wits between the two begins. A twist or two later and Carles Torrens's "Pet" has gone completely off the rails, becoming gradually sillier even as it manages to remain boring. Of course, the silliness doesn't stop the movie from playing it straight, nor does it take any big risks en route to a predictable ending, so if you get a few laughs out of it, they're likely to be ironic.

Dominic Monaghan is given pretty bad material to work with here, but does well enough. As his co-lead, Ksenia Solo does not. Da'Vone McDonald, meanwhile, provides welcome comic relief in the few scenes that are actually written to be funny. Then there's Jennette McCurdy as the captive Holly's friend Claire, whose involvement in Holly's current predicament is eventually revealed to be greater than initially thought. I usually like McCurdy's work (especially her excellent memoir "I'm Glad My Mom Died") but her contribution here is about as flat and lifeless as the movie deserves.

This isn't particularly inspirational material here (2007's "Captivity" gets a bad rap but does a better job with similar themes) and it's only entertaining in flashes. It had potential, for sure, but that died the moment the filmmakers decided to get clever with it by putting an unlikely spin on an otherwise basic story. Hard pass.