The Good, the Bad, and the Dead

Where do older actors go to retire? I don't know - but they're in movies like this one just prior. Stars Trejo, Lundgren, and Pare - older action stars. Also stars several B-listers as well: Messner, Fox, and Malthe, among them. The plot's been done many a time, drug deal gone bad and the money's in the back of the vehicle to be found, and pursued. This could have been a good movie, but wasn't. The production values are pretty good. The acting isn't. You'd be better off watching something else. I rented this one for $4, and wished I hadn't. I didn't find this one to have been worth watching, wouldn't have paid a dollar to watch it had I known better.

Even the good actors (which is why i tried to watch it) are so bad i almost cried. First few minutes looks good, the rest is just horrible and pain to watch. Didnt make it to the end. Had to delete it asap

Ambitious C-movie, which, thanks to a passable look, shoots close to the B category in a crisp 85 minutes.

As expected, the many familiar faces serve every known cliché, which can probably be considered fan service in this sector. Many, perhaps a few too many characters, to bundle a common material from so many threads may be successful for the idols Tarantino and Ritchie, but not for Mr. Woodward. Where else do they steal? Score ala Desperado, shootouts in the spirit of John Woo. But why not, "it does what it's supposed to do".

In most rankings, 4Got10 gets a 4 out 10, with a good mood at the viewing, it could be a 5.

Well almost the title then. Although in Germany they have a different one and kind of seem to want to compare it to a Western (Good, bad and the Dead). And that's not that far off the mark (no pun intended). Unfortunately the movie never really satisfies completely. It tries too much for its own good.

And while Danny Trejo is always a natural and has his charisma just because of who he is in real life, there is not really empathy that the viewer can feel for the characters involved. So the twists and turns that predictably come, do not really shock that much (maybe surprise a couple of viewers at best). Mediocre if you set your expectations low

For the first five minutes the movie, which thinks it has clever title, it might look decent with cool visual and noir vibe, then it literally falls apart with every following scenes. The plot makes little sense, the acting consist of the males trying to be as comically macho as possible while the ladies seem like they're auditioning for porn intro. The action is on another league of laughably bad with abundance of cheap and silly effects.

Story follows many different characters, who the movie introduces with amateur imitation of Tarantino style. The multi-perspective immediately falters with poor logic and overly convenient melodramatic subplots. One scene has Danny Trejo performing dramatic monologue like he's in telenovela. It tries to string together several agendas with climatic twist only to end up with severe inconsistency.

Normally, I wouldn't nitpick much about acting, but it has one of the most absurd performances even on B-movie standard. Natassia Malthe as Christine is utterly bizarre. It's like she's under the influence of anesthetic or laughing gas from dentist and trying to resist the effect during filming. Her expressions are forced and just unnaturally disrupting on almost every scenes she's in.

Most of the men are rough agents or rougher antagonists. Danny Trejo alone should suffice for gruff character, but here everyone grunt, swear and try to look humorously manly as though they are on Marlboro commercial. The ladies are painfully over acted. It doesn't matter who the character is, every girl winks or flirts, sometimes directly to the camera. I'm surprised they didn't just suck lollipop and moan instead of delivering their lines.

Action is all kinds of bad. It makes mid-tier Bollywood movies look like Oscar material for choreography. Punches and kicks miss while baddies fly across the room. Everyone is trigger happy, literally shooting anyone without little to no provocation, but they lack the self-preservation instinct to take cover. Then we have the crappy slow-mo with flare effect painted on the gun. It's mesmerizingly bad.

If there's any shining light on this black mess, it's that Johnny Messner as the lead Brian is not bad. He brings effort for his character and he would've been a more decent lead if given the right material. Dolph Lundgren is also pretty good, most of the revelation hinges on him and he did try. Still, the problem with original material persists, they just seems underutilized here.

There are a lot flaws, either in writing or choreography, yet the movie pretends they don't exist and continue to play western music or some macho gibberish. It honestly looks like spoof of action, but I fear it actually tries to be gritty. In that case, one should still view it as parody for more amusement or simply forget it entirely.