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A BETTER WAY TO DIE is hardly a B-movie gem, and yet it's certainly an entertaining time-waster, a star vehicle and labour of love for a director/writer/actor you've never heard of and a movie packed to the brim with chases and shoot-outs. In terms of pacing this is an unstoppable movie with all manner of crime clichés and violent events to propel the slim storyline.

In essence, star Scott Wiper plays a down-on-his-luck type who finds himself pursued by multiple bad guys, including gangsters, dealers and corrupt government agents. It feels a bit like a Tarantino flick, something like TRUE ROMANCE, in that there are multiple criminals and they're all battling against each other. Wiper is instantly forgettable as a leading man but I quite enjoyed his work as writer and director here.

Star actors are low on the ground, but viewers are treated to Lou Diamond Phillips giving a laidback turn as a corrupt cop, HOSTEL's Rick Hoffman as a thug, Natasha Henstridge (SPECIES) as the love interest and another decent role for Andre Braugher (THE MIST). The action comes thick and fast and I'll admit it, I had a ball with this one, even if it's not something you'd want to watch again once you know what happens.

"A Better Way to Die" is a macho little testosterone rush "sleeper" which follows a square jawed, lean and cut, sissy-voiced ex-cop as he wades through more "heavies" than a Weight Watchers convention. With two firefights even before credits, this terse action jammed drama with a sense of humor has an ever increasing body count as its rather ordinary good guys vs bad guys plot unfolds with cops, FBI, and mobsters duking it out and our reluctant hero invariably caught in between. The viewer is given a personal score to settle when the mob prematurely robs us of more vistas of Henstridge skin and good guys turn bad, bad guys turn good, bullet casings pile up, and the film waxes bloodier all the way to its conclusion. "A Better Way to Die" is best served with a sixer and big bag of chips.

a B movie. like a lot of others. same hero, same bad guys, same final. and the predictable line with the expected turn of events. but , after a time, it seems be different. maybe for the presence of Lou Diamond Phillips. or for the performance, who saves a lot, of Andre Braugher. it fact, the answer is not complicated. the ambition of a young director who dreams to do a film who , at first sigh, not propose something original but reflects his love for a movie genre is the pillar who sustains fights and gun fires, fake scenes and the classic love story. and, at its end, the film has the huge virtue to remember the old story about the war between good and evil in its basic essence. a good point for be indulgent about A Better Way to Die.

Nothing particularly unique about this movie, but it held my attention all the way through. Solid acting, direction, reasonably interesting story, good cast of characters; about the only complaint I would make is that I always felt like I was missing something. That's not specific enough to be of much use, I suppose, but it's as close as I can get to verbalizing my complaint. I give this one 6/10; watch it if you don't have anything else to do.

I was pleasantly surprised with this flick, as it looked like a typical and un-original action film whereas it turned out to be fairly original and extremely entertaining. The central character is called "Boomer" and is played by Scott Wiper who is a very talented actor, director and writer and it seemed as though he put a lot of thought and effort into this movie, which really pays off. The opening scene is one of the best i've seen for a long time and is obviously influenced by the 'Quentin Tarantino' style of writing and film-making...which of course is a good thing. I was also surprised at the strength of the cast, which includes such hollywood names as Lou Diamond Phillips, Joe Pantoliano, Natasha Henstridge and Andre Braugher.

The highlight of this film has to be Andre Braugher's character 'Cleveland'. Cleveland is a fairly complex character and quite humerous, he's an assassin with a good heart and really makes the film much more entertaining (as do most of the characters). However, I was quite disappointed with some of this film as the big names such as Natasha Henstridge and Joe Pantoliano hardly get any screen time and I was very disappointed as I thought these actors/actresses would be significant characters, which they weren't. All in all 'A Better Way To Die" is an extremely entertaining action flick which takes you on a roller-coaster ride of action and surprises.