Swelter

Saw this movie on sale for 50 cents and said hey can't go wrong right? It made sense after watching why it was so cheap but overall the movie wasn't worst thing I ever seen.

First of all this is not big budget movie at all. Its very easy to tell immediately from the shaky camera work to the poor action shots. But it does what it can with all that in mind.

The movie starts painfully slow and feels extremely dragged out. However the last 20 minutes or so I have to say were pretty good and lot things happen.

Another issue I had with this movie without giving too much away is some events that transpire in the movie are utterly confusing and you'll notice yourself scratching your head several times. Its shame because I think they tried to do this to give it twist and turn aspect but this style of movie it just doesn't work good for.

I wouldn't recommend this movie for teenage to young adult demographic they'll hate it with passion. But for the dad/older men generation might find it somewhat enjoyable.

Back in the day, a movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme was an action flick with lots of martial arts. He was the good guy in it. And it actually starred Van Damme.

More recently, Van Damme has made some movies with him as a flawed protagonist, and then several more as the main bad guy.

This movie is a decent Drama/Suspense film, with Van Damme as a secondary character, and a tries-to-be-good bad guy. He is just above the "character actor" role, probably in my mind only because he is JCVD.

The bad guys here go looking for the guy who barely escaped and still has the money, after some hold-up years ago where everyone else goes to prison to stew and fester about their revenge. There are enough variations on this basic idea to keep the viewer interested. Lennie James does a good job as the town Sheriff, easy going, hard to ruffle, and who you somehow know you just don't want to mess with. There is actually a little action here and there, but it is realistic (no martial arts) and serves mostly to add to the suspense.

With no JCVD, this would be a movie worth a watch. An interesting plot, with good acting, and nice cinematography. Seeing JCVD do his "actual acting" thing is also fairly enjoyable. He manages to entertain with his french (Belgian) accent and a simmering manner that seems to add depth even to a character that has little.

This is not a Jean Claude van Damme vehicle (putting this out, because I can imagine that some countries might try to sell it that way). He's taking back seat with a more chilled out character and lets others go crazy. Lennie James whom I really noticed in "Hung" (nice small role in that TV show) is taking center stage.

The story is pretty bog standard, but it works for a small budget movie. It tries keeping the story flowing and doesn't take any prisoners (a bit of a western analogy can be made). The flashbacks are there to help us and move the story forward. Some character relationships are a bit too complicated and might not work entirely. Still nice effort and the tension it builds is decent enough

I bought this film only because it was a mix up between western and crime movie, and also because there was JCVD in a supporting character. Besides this, as we say in french, this feature doesn't break three legs to a duck. Nothing exceptional in this forgettable movie. I did appreciate the wink to THE WILD BUNCH; the sheriff's name is Pike Bishop. I watched Sam Peckinpah's masterpiece at least a dozen times in my life, and Pike Bishop sounds quite familiar to my ears.

It's a new wave crime film, in the line of Quentin Tarantino's world, as we watch since the early nineties now.

An acceptable time waster, no more, just for rent, and certainly not for buying.

This is the worst film I have seen this year.

The plot makes no sense whatsoever. The characters are stupid - I mean really stupid - and the script is somewhere between rubbish and turgid.

The director clearly wanted to make a Tarantino style western/gangster movie but could not direct or write a script get anywhere near this.

One of those films where you realise half an hour in that you have another hour of this to go but you might as well as you are already in it..and then an hour later you realise you made a bad decision an hour earlier.

I have to write more apparently to publish my review...so now the film is annoying me more by making me type more about it. This should definitely be near the top of your avoid list.