Sin

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

Retired detective Eddie Burns (Ving Rhames) is called back in to action when his young sister Kassie (Kerry Washington) is abducted by a sinister criminal named Charlie Strom (Gary Oldman).She's found fairly swiftly though,returned in one piece despite having been subjected to an horrific rape ordeal.As Burns sets out to seek justice for his sister,it emerges Strom is as eager to set up a meeting with Burns as he is with him,as he has some business of his own with the detective,in the shape of an unsettled score.

As I watched this dismal feature plod on,I was woken up to a fact I've chosen to overlook for a while now:Rhames really ain't that great an actor.In some of his other,more bearable features (in which he co-stars) his problems with delivery and tone are something I don't tend to notice,but when he's carrying the film,he ends up coming out in his true colours.As for Oldman,it's really a case of how the mighty have fallen,his once commanding presence in films of real vitality and inspiration now reduced to corny,hackneyed psycho turns such as his co starring role here.The plot is an uneven,patchy mess that dabbles in overtures of the ridiculous that by the time the laughably silly,clumsily self conscious ending has rolled by,have (ahem!) swallowed the film whole.*

This was worst film I have ever had the misfortune to sit through. It was painful to watch, the only thing that kept me watching this dreadful film was that it was so bad I felt I had a responsibility to warn the rest of the world not to waste a couple of hours of their lives watching it.

There was no plot to speak of and any hints of a plot were so obvious that you work them out at least half an hour in advance. Every word in this film is a part of a line or a speech, there is no 'normal everyday talking' the script is rubbish! The direction was confusing in its absence and the editing seems to have been done ten minutes before the premier.

Do not be fooled by the cast as they were also somehow fooled by the script.

Worthy of the IMDb bottom 100, and in my opinion should be #1.

There were way too many holes in the plot to make this movie worth watching for everyone that likes the actors or genre. The only reason I watched the entire movie was because, as a woman, seeing the massive revenge against rapists was very satisfying. One of those rare moments in which the woman isn't continually re-victimized. I thought Oldman's performance was a little more natural than that of Rhames, but his was still decent. I can't say all women would gain anything by seeing rapists tortured. It's dicey. I gave it a 3 out of 10. My feeling is that veterans such as Rhames and Oldman should have seen all of the mistakes in dialog and plot consistency and maybe passed on it altogether. If you're up and bored in the middle of the night while it's on a movie channel, you might as well watch it.

Sin is known as the B movie that Gary Oldman did, and he himself has bad mouthed it on occasion. Back then though, this was the only kind of movie like that he had to explain away. These days he has quite a few more of this type in his filmography, so he can't really talk. It really isn't the best movie, and functions as well as its limited budget and mediocre script will allow, but I must say there are a few moments, ones with stars Oldman and Rhames, that are just killer, and one in fact that borders on greatness. Rhames plays Eddie Burns, an ex cop or military man who lives estranged in the country, until the organized gang rape of his sister (Kerry Washington) coaxes him back into Reno Nevada. This heinous crime (a scene which borders on exploitation, to be honest) is orchestrated by Charlie Strom (Oldman), a nasty pornographer and drug kingpin who has a decades old bone to pick with Eddie. The film has some lonely atmospherics to it, the eventual confrontation between the two playing out in a poetic, if contrived fashion. For all the two bit moments in the script (and there are a lot), there's one showstopper of a scene between Rhames and Oldman, that is reminiscent of Michael Mann's Heat, and is quietly but surely affecting in its sadness. Brian Cox blusters through as Eddie's former police boss, Bill Sage hangs out for a bit as a detective, and the one, the only Gregg Henry appears as a sleazy informant who feeds Rhames Intel. He also gets the best line of the film, exclaiming "I haven't even had my morning fattie" after being rudely awakened Rhames. Watch for Alicia Coppola, Daniel Dae Kim and Arie Verveen as well. There's some genuine ambition in the script, delving into the complex moral conundrum that exists between protagonist and antagonist, and how the two archetypes aren't always so clear cut. Conscience and lack thereof is explored as well, with surprising results. I won't lie and say it isn't just a trashy b movie, but I won't pretend there wasn't some moments and aspects which I greatly enjoyed. It's somewhere right in the middle.

I watched this movie for two reasons; The amazing Gary Oldman and for the music by Michael Giacchino of whom I'm a fan ever since his "Medal of Honor" scores. The movie was not completely a waste of time but it also was far from good.

Man to blame is I think director Michael Stevens, you can tell by looking at this movie that he is just too unexperienced. There are some well executed sequences but there are way more scene's that are just poorly done also due to some weird and dumb camera positions and some poor editing. Michael Stevens tries to impress the viewer with some shots of nature, it only works distracting and doesn't do much good to the pace. Maybe he should consider a career as documentary maker?

The story is also quite a problem. It takes a while before you understand what the movie is all about. Once you pick up the story the movie is actually not bad, it's just that it has been done about a hundred times before.

Ving Rhames tries but he just ain't no good leading actor, I liked his costume but that's about all the positive I can say. Gary Oldman is in his element as psychopathic villain. He played a lot of roles like this before but in his case you just never get tired of it. Brian Cox is also excellent in a small supporting role. And keep an eye on Arie Verveen, I expect great things for him in the future.

If you can ignore the bad dialog, story, plot-holes and directing you'll see that there is some good in this movie and that it is a watchable one that is fairly entertaining as an action movie but not a must see in any way.

5/10

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