The Ministers - Mein ist die Rache

Harvey Keitel is his usual great self in this crime/action/thick-with-religious-fervor film about vigilante justice and highly motivated detectives trying tangle in the perps. The problem with this movie, in my humble opinion, is the less-than-coherent script, which falls short in its efforts to utilize underdeveloped characters and poorly directed scenes that do not seem aligned with the primary storyline.

Rotten Tomatoes correctly ascribes only 13% rating to a movie that tries too hard to unscramble some broken eggs. It's mainly the principal female lead working with Keitel. Few things in life are less attractive than a key character smoking a cigarette. It's totally unnecessary, so shame on the director/writer for making this a necessary part. Yuck. Movies need to END this disgusting habit, period.

When one watches a Frank Reyes film, one knows the movie will be entertaining and there will be plenty of action. Reyes is a disciple of John Singleton. One watches his films for entertainment and for escapism, nothing more. Thirteen years after her father was slain, and now a New York City homicide detective, she (the lead actress) sets out to discover the truth behind the gruesome murder. The movie has a kind of religious theme and is a psychological thriller with a nice arc from start to finish. Great acting from John Leguizamo, Harvey Keitel and Wanda De Jesus, who is a "regular" from Reyes films. Don't analyze every frame, just take it for what it is and sit back and enjoy the film.

This one is hard to watch. The serious tone of the story line, the edgy dual performance by John Leguizamo, and the dark Christian perspective will not win this work any fans in the Bible-Belt, for sure, but they also factor into the equation of elements adding together to make the viewer cringe and pull back not only from the story, but from the characters. By the time you decide whose side you're on, the movie is over and you're left feeling empty and incomplete from the experience. This is, without a doubt, John Leguizamo's "the Libertine," in that it may well be his best performance ever, and maybe 12 people will see it. I cannot say this film is fabulous, but I will say that John Leguizamo purely shines, so if you're a fan of his work, do yourself a favor and redbox this (at least), but if not, you may want to try "What's the Worst that Could Happen?" instead, wherein he costars with Martin Lawrence and Danny DiVito.

All in all? This is one of those dark obscure pools of goodness whose appreciation calls for a genre-fan, or a fan of the principal actor, to really enjoy the work. Otherwise, you may be disappointed.

I love John Leguizamo, so for me, it rates a 7.6/10 from...

the Fiend :.

In New York, Detective Alberto Santana (Benny Nieves) comes with his partner Joseph Bruno (Harvey Keitel) to meet his wife Gina and his daughter Celeste (Gabriella Fanuele) to celebrate her eighteenth birthday. Out of the blue, Alberto is shot in his head on the sidewalk by a man wearing a hood that delivers a religious message from the Lord. Many years later, Celeste (Florencia Lozano) is a detective of the New York Police Department and partner of Joe Bruno.

When the crooks Alden and Jeff Kane, who had torched their buildings to receive the insurance, are released from prison, they are executed by two criminals in the same modus operandi of detective Santana, and the police department concludes that they are the same killers. Lieutenant Diaz (Wanda de Jesus) assigns Detective Manso (Manny Perez) and Detective Demarco (Saul Stein) from narcotics to investigate the case, for the deception of Celeste. Then the drug dealer Chino and his gang are executed in Manhattan's Lower East Side by the killers Dante and his deformed and deranged twin brother Perfecto (John Leguizamo), and Lieutenant Diaz teams up Joe and Celeste with Manso and Demarco. Meanwhile, Dante meets Celeste in the church and they date first and have a love affair. When Perfecto decides to kill Joe, Dante argues with him but the dysfunctional brother does not listen to him.

"The Ministers" is a film with a good police story ruined by a messy screenplay and a melodramatic direction that transforms a gloomy story with great potential in a soap opera. John Leguizamo and Harvey Keitel have reasonable performances, but Florencia Lozano does not convince as a detective and does not show any chemistry with John Leguizamo. This film really deserved Abel Ferrara in the direction. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Justiceiros de Deus" ("Vigilantes of God")

If The Ministers had a point to make, it didn't make it with me. After watching the film, I'm still puzzled as to what exactly it was all about.

Young Florencia Lozano loses her detective father Benny Nieves in what was a hit carried out by two hooded men who have killed before and leave these Bible tracts at the scenes of their crimes. Years later she is now a detective partnered with Harvey Keitel who was her father's partner and her supervising detective is Wanda DeJesus who was trained by Lozano's father.

The two killers known as The Ministers are also accused in the shooting deaths of a whole drug crew, a rather bloody bit of business that Sam Peckinpah would have been glad to choreograph. The two Ministers are played by John Leguizamo in a dual role as twins. One of the twins was badly burned in an apartment house fire as a child.

In fact Leguizamo has a whole agenda of scores to settle, but he also gets himself involved with Lozano, the non-scarred twin that is.

The Ministers has a confused message, a whole lot of violence and not a lot of rational sense to the plot. Seems a terrible waste of a lot of talented people.