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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.

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.

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.

A BETTER WAY TO DIE is an entertaining, albeit mindless, low-budget action film. Like many films in this direct-to-video niche, there's no rhyme or reason to why things happen in DIE, except simply to say that things happen because it leads to other things happening, such as the constant gunfights and other action-related sequences.

Basically a string of shootouts and violent deaths linked together by an afterthought of a story, A BETTER WAY TO DIE is still quite entertaining. That is, if you manage to turn off your brain and realize that the reason cops never show up is because it would ruin the next upcoming gunfight.

Of note is Lou Diamond Phillips, who continues his string of Cheesy Villains in these direct-to-video action films. What has happened, Lou?

5 out of 10.