Once Fallen

I should have liked this movie. It has so many elements that I normally enjoy: Ed Harris, prison drama and action, criminal brotherhood, and it's an indie film (which I tend to prefer to large studio movies).

Unfortunately, all of these elements were combined very poorly. The result is on par with a made-for-TV movie or, at best, some crappy Dean Cain or Casper Van Diem movie shown at 3am on TNT ("Starship Troopers" excluded, of course).

And though I feel like 2/10 is a harsh score (especially for a low-budget indie film), every time I reconsider the score my mind flashes to many poorly written, poorly acted, poorly directed scenes that are burned into my memory. It's a bad movie; 2/10 is fair.

This film receiving a 3.6/10 is unfathomable to me. The acting is superb and the plot develops very well. This film is about a family and their close knit friends having to live with the hard choices they make, and the price they pay for those choices. There is real emotion to this film and the characters are developed extremely well. It has elements of film noir in its gritty and detailed depiction of characters with rough edges and all but that really adds to this film's power. Ed Harris does not disappoint in his role as the deeply flawed yet caring father, who puts everything on the line for his son over and over again (not wanting to spoil anything, that is all I will say about that). An excellent film, well worth watching.

I am giving a rather low rating for a movie that is, shot for a low budget of $650000 in only a few weeks, surprisingly well made. I'll try my best to explain why, without spoiling any aspect of the story:

the movie starts out strong as the main character Chance, a drug dealer released from prison after five years is trying hard to change his live for the better. what's not to like about this beginning? Chance is likable (and cute) enough, no surprise here: we want him to succeed but we almost instantly sense that chances for Chance are slim!

the more the story evolves and presents its challenges to our "hero to be", the more all the characters are evolving into rather overdone caricatures, loaded with stereotypes ...

Writer/Producer/Director/Actor Adams meant well but in the end only manages to deliver a well executed movie with an o.k. story but totally lacking convincing characters. This, however is only my personal opinion and should not keep anyone from watching the movie.

This film is about a young man, Chance (Brian Presley - Borderland), who has a lot of problems with his life, that he must overcome.

His father Liam, (Ed Harris) is currently in prison for beating a man to death, and has been elected head of the Aryan Nation, which gives him certain privileges, but also some obligations that he must fulfill.

Chance's best friend Beat (Chad Lindberg - The Fast and the Furious) has a lot of psychological problems, and is currently involved with a notorious drug-dealer, Rath (Ash Adams - Lionheart), who also happens to be a crooked cop, and doesn't take no for an answer.

Apart from these problems, Chance has just found out that his ex-girlfriend Kat, (Alison Eastwood - Tightrope) has been raising his child while he was in jail, but now decides to split and leave the kid with him, all the while Rath is hassling him, Beat, and Liam.

Chance gets some help from his old pal, bar-owner Eddie (Peter Weller - RoboCop), who in return expects Chance to do some street-fighting for him. Random fights is the only job Chance can get, apart from dealing drugs, but as he now has a young son to raise, and recently finds new love in Pearl (Taraji P. Henson - Hustle & Flow), who just happens to be black - something Liam's fellow Aryan brothers certainly doesn't approve of, and they send their number two, Sonny (Peter Greene - Pulp Fiction) to tell him about it in person.

The thing about this film that makes it fall beneath the cracks of goodness, is the sheer lack of common sense. For starters, it doesn't make any sense, that: 1) Liam became the head of the Aryan nation, but doesn't seem very well-liked by ANY of the other Aryans. 2) Chance's girlfriend just leaving her son with him - an almost complete stranger - after raising the kid for 5 years! 3) The part about Rath ending the way it did - made NO sense whatsoever.

In the end, it all just feels like the story could've gone in SO many other directions, which would've been better. And the producers had an all-star stellar cast of character-actors, which they didn't use for anything at all!

I mean, the movie has Richard Tyson (Kindergarten Cop), Antonio Vargas (Starsky & Hutch), Jesse D. Goins (RoboCop), Sticky Fingaz (Onyx), Rance Howard (Ed Wood), and Steve friggin' Railsback (Lifeforce), and a LOT of other great character-actors, but they're all just completely WASTED in this production, only half of them getting any lines, and the rest just appearing in a few minutes with hardly any screen-time at all... it makes no sense, not to use any of them for anything.. why not just cast some random unknowns instead?

I felt like a good opportunity was missed here. Some of the points came across well, but mostly it was just wasted.

It is refreshing to see a low budget film like this out doing lot's and lot's of big name actor films of late. The story is solid, goes along at a good pace, acting is good (due to a well picked cast). A solid 8 out of 10 and a hell of a lot better film than some of the over rated B grade crap that I have seen coming from the over paid Hollywood production line for some time. Watch it as it is worth a view.

It is refreshing to see a low budget film like this out doing lot's and lot's of big name actor films of late. The story is solid, goes along at a good pace, acting is good (due to a well picked cast). A solid 8 out of 10 and a hell of a lot better film than some of the over rated B grade crap that I have seen coming from the over paid Hollywood production line for some time. Watch it as it is worth a view.