Triggermen

I rented this one the other day and was pleasantly surprised. It's unfortunate it didn't get better distribution; it would have made a great short-term summer release.

In general, the flick is nicely-paced, the storyline is interesting enough to hold your attention, and the characters are for the most part fun to watch. The interplay between Wahlberg and Rapaport doesn't always hit the mark, but it works more often than not. Morrissey and Dunbar work well together; they have the same argument a number of different times, but it doesn't really get tedious. Postlethwaite is his usual impeccable self. The biggest revelation to me, though, was Forlani. IMO, she either plays the "sympathetic woman always on the verge of crying," or the "strong, independent, sexy love interest." This role is thankfully one of the latter. I must say she looks the best I've ever seen her look in this flick, to the point where she went up a few notches on my hotness scale.

The other reviews cover the plot well enough, so I'll wrap up by recommending this to anyone looking for an amusing, easy-to-digest gangster flick. The surprisingly hot Claire Forlani is the icing on the cake.

Yes, this is a post Tarantino movie, full of lovable, deep, insightful hit men and con men. Yes, hit men are usually pretty cool guys, except for a rogue one like Boots who gives the noble profession a bad name. Well the movie starts out on a promising theme, after a generic aborted mob hit, two English con men are trapped in a fleabag motel in Chicago (somewhere in Canada actually) without enough money to pay the landlady. They are harmless small timers who take international crime trips to America as some sort of road bonding adventure. They are two popular British TV personalities, Neil Morrissey & Adrian Dunbar, who are okay but not standout in real life. So one of them happens upon some mob loot in a luggage scam he pulls in a high class hotel lobby. It was a down payment cash for a mob hit. So these two guys, neither are suicidal or great risk takers, decide to use the reserved room that was earmarked for the real hit men and find some more loot, a key to the target's room and a pistol with a silencer. Like I said, these are small time survivor types, so naturally they hang out in the room, living it up until the mobsters who hired them, sight unseen, comes to visit. All the through the movie, one asks, "why not cut out with some easy cash and go back to England to your pregnant witch girlfriend while the going is safe?"

Meanwhile the two American hit men, who were supposed to get the room and cash are hanging out trying to figure out what happened to their lucrative contract. One of them, played by a Don Wahlberg, falls in love with some woman who happens to be the mobster's to be hit daughter. See, he is a nice guy too, misunderstood, who just wants a normal suburban life yadda yadda. The other one is played by Michael Rappaport, so he is obnoxious, stupid and loud, but not a bad guy either. You know those hit men types.

So all sorts of lame hijinks ensue as the con men pretend to be hit men and are coerced by the bad hit men to go through with it. Meanwhile the two real hit men unravel the mystery while Donnie hits on the actress. So it goes on to a lame conclusion where only the bad hit men get it and everyone else gets a piece of the action. Prety harmless, but in that respect it is more Hollywood than indie or Tarantino.

I don't know if anyone else has used this plot before but I think it is one of those gem ideas that can go anywhere. As I started to watch this, my fascination with the premise of the piece grew and grew. The various characters comfortably held my attention as I continued to wonder how it was going to work out. What more can you ask of a movie.

Wahlberg was excellent, but then he always is (Sgt. Lipton in Band of Brothers, how hard was it to stand out in a huge ensemble of guys of military service age, but he did more than fine). Watching Pete Postlethwaite's face is like reading a library full of quality novels all in a glance. He is perfect in the role. I wish Rappaport had a little more to do in this one. Neil Morrissey and Adrian Dunbar were perfectly matched as low-rent crooks stumbling into a little more than they could handle. I am going to see where else I can find Claire Forlani's work, she was very, very likable in this. At the end I finally realized how little time was spent outside the hotel but that was okay with me.

I would recommend this movie to any friend.

Among the films screened early on at the American Film Market 2002 in Feb., was "The Triggermen", a pleasant reminder that even with a relatively small budget, a movie can succeed if generously laced with invention and humor.

Two Brits lacking funds, Pete (Neil Morrissey) and Andy (Adrian Dunbar), are mistaken for two killers hired to bump off Ben Cutler (Pete Postlewaite) a Mob chieftain. The laughs come fast and often as one complication lands on top of another. Things are not helped when one of the so-called killers falls in love with Cutler's daughter, played by Claire Forlani.

Despite a few rough edges, director John Bradshaw brings in a likable movie I think should be high on most moviegoers have-to-see list.

Easy waste of time, seeing some uK actors early in their careers. A but predictable.