Los muelles del delito

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 was a great movie. The main character Chance was very believable as well as captivating. Ed Harris as always gave a very deep performance as Chance's father. Tajiri Henson (Hustle & Flow), Amy Madigan (Gone baby Gone), Ash Adams & Peter Weller (Robo Cop) all gave strong supporting performances. Ash Adams i the director, writer and has a good role in this movie. I watched "Once Fallen" 2 days ago and plan to watch it again. It has been on my mind since I watched it. I'm not sure why it has some low ratings, but it did not stop me from enjoying this very well made film. I honestly would have rated it between a 6 and a 7 but since a lot of people that I don't believe watched the film gave it low ratings I gave it a 10 to help it out. For your info, this movie is in the style of "American History X". Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this movie.

Review: I'm usually a fan of Ed Harris's work, but I found this movie quite weak and the storyline pretty boring. It seemed like it was made for TV and you don't really get to see why Ed Harris is so feared in jail. You also don't get to see what happened to the corrupt cop after all of his evil doings and the ending was corny. I now know why I hadn't heard anything about the film before it came came because it's one of those low budget films that will be forgotten, even though there were some decent actors in it. The only watchable factor is that you want to see what happens to the main character whose trying to go straight, but apart from that, I didn't find it that interesting. Disappointing!

Round-Up: At the age of 64, Ed Harris is still churning out movies with great performances. From Pain & Gain to a brief role in Gravity, he still makes some decent movies but a lot of them go straight to DVD. He has a unique, cool way of acting which is great to watch but he has made some bad choices of late. I was surprised to see Sharon Glees, who used to play Cagney in Cagney & Lacey, but she only had a small role without much lines. I think that everyone thought that she would have been a bigger star than she was. As for this movie, it started off well and the storyline looked promising, but it went downhill after the main character came out of prison. 

I recommend this movie to people who are into their drama/crime movies about a guy who comes out of prison and tries to go straight, now that he has to look after his 5 year old boy, but he keeps on getting pulled in the wrong direction. 3/10

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.