Blunt Force Trauma

No spoilers. Just an old reference.

When I was younger, there was a thing called a "shaggy dog story".

This movie has A LOT going for it. It has good character development, for example.

Good basic plot.

Good (although each mostly simple) complications to the plot.

Some elements of the action were never adequately explained.

But in the long run: too many things were not explained in the context. Many things seemed to happen with no rational motivation behind them.

They all did lead to the end... but not in any logical manner.

So, then comes the climax...

"Shaggy dog story".

If you are looking for action, just forget it. There isn't any. Most of the film is uninteresting chatter. It is very slow paced and terribly boring film.

My recommendation: Skip it.

My vote: 1/10.

This is not a very good film. Straight to the point, eh? It's about people who stand in a small circle clad in bulletproof vests who then proceed to draw guns and shoot each other in an underground gunfighter/duel type thingy. Bets are placed, money exchanged etc, etc.

It's at one of these bizarre events we met John and Colt, our films leads, who hit it off an embark on a road trip of sorts.

The film tries hard to aspire to some kind of gunslinger noir but with little plot and thinly drawn characters it all feels a bit contrived. On the plus side one of the films leads, Colt is played by the stunningly beautiful Freida Pinto so there's that at least, and it's cinematography is pretty tidy too. There's also a late appearance from Mickey Rourke,a truly gifted actor but his appearance now a days must surely frighten children and his cameo is rather naff. On the whole this picture is attempting to be cool and moody but it just all feels a bit hackneyed and trite.

This one could have been something like Bloodsport (starring JCVD) or Salute of the Jugger (also know as The Blood of Heroes, starring Rutger Hauer) but with guns. Sadly, we get instead way too much (boring) talking, chattering, then some more talking, and, sadly too, not enough gunfights and action. The actors are not to blame, they do solid, also the production is solid for a movie on a B-movie budget, but the story is rather confused, taking away that great premise/idea and focusing on whatever the writer got in mind to achieve (I'm not sure what it was). So Blunt Force Trauma does not reach the great heavens of cheesy and entertaining action B-movie flicks but falls into the terrible pit of the almost-good ones that are to be forgotten but by a few lost souls.

Ultimately unfulfilling, long winded movie that fails to satisfy on any level. The two leads are effective, but the plot(such as it is) is plodding. Things deteoriate even further by the time mickey rourke turns up shortly before the end.

Rourkes botched surgery is so ghastly it detracts from what little impact the weak ending might have had.

Not recommended.