mharah

Gosh, the self-appointed critics sure got together to attack this one. However, an unbiased eye would have realized that it has quite a few good points. True, a lot of things could have been done better, and a surer hand probably would have seen to that. Guyy Pearce might be mistakenly criticized for walking through role. Not true - his style was totally motivated and definitively handled.

Pearce - for whatever reason he decided to do a B-movie - brought a lot of credibility to the project. Pearce's career is at a point where he doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to do, so he must have had some personal reason for signing on. And he had to have known that his coworkers were less than the seasoned pros he was used to.

Devon Sawa - capable but unremarkable in his beginnings as a child actor - is excellent as the chief bad guy. He deftly avoided all the pitfalls of villain cliches as well as overacting. He proved to be an worthy nemesis for Pearce.

Barbie Blank - Pearce's love interest - sort of - is a WWE star, and the role took good advantage of her skills. As an actress, she was handed a very one-dimensional role, which she handled accordingly.

Most of the rest of the cast are experienced actors - albeit nothing outstanding, and by and large they acquitted themselves well (with a few very notable, glaring exceptions).

The problems began with the script, which, although full of potential, failed to overcome its weak points in production.. The flow of the plot - which could have been all too familiar and all too trite - managed to avoid the screamingly ordinary. While there are only so many ways to handle the details of the plot - all of which have been filmed a lot in the past, this movie handled them fairly well. The "clunky" moments - and there a lot of them - are more a problem of staging and/or direction.

Director. Shackleton was handling his ninth and most recent stint in the director's chair. I'm not familiar with his earlier work. But it doesn't seem to have thoroughly prepared him for what is essentially an action film. The pacing - which is unnecessarily leisurely most of the time - doesn't lend itself to being corrected in post.

All in all, this film is definitely not the waste of time that multiple imdb critics would have us believe. Pearce is quoted as describing the film as "abysmal". He would be greatly responsible for that if it were true, which it is not. Perhaps his reaction has been taken out of context, because he had to have known what he was getting into.

Shackleton's next project is in preproduction for which he is also listed as a producer. Normally, I would say that being both producer and director may not be the best decision. However, "Disturbing the Peace" has a producer list that went on for miles; and Shackleton wasn't one of them. Perhaps, he should have been.

Sometimes Columbia took a good story and trashed it. A Lawless Street is a good example. Columbia gave the project a B-List writer, a B-List producer a B-List Director, and a B-List supporting cast. Not surprisingly, Columbia came out with a B-List film. Considering what Columbia aspired to in the 50s, the result was probably not unexpected. The two stars had previously shown they were worthy of A-List projects, but studios weren't adverse to putting their best contract players in whatever would keep them working, since, working or not, they were getting paid. The result was, all-too-often, films such as A Lawless Street. Both Randolph Scott and Angela Lansbury were better than this, and their work in the film has flashes of their better work. Maybe someone will discover this buried treasure and give it the A-List rewrite it deserves.

The Spike Lee fans on IMDB are in a tizzy. Spike apparently isn't allowed to make anything that doesn't top his last film . Okay, this one doesn't do that. But that doesn't make it a bad film. It's a treasure hunt with a bunch of "grumpy old men". And it does seem somewhat unlikely in spots, but who knows for sure? Few of us have been trekking in the Vietnamese jungle. Delroy's MAGA character was somewhat extreme, but this is Spike after all; he's hardly a moderate. The film is a good watch, a bit long perhaps, but still engaging. Excellent work from a skilled cast and crew. In short, this film probably might have been less vociferously received had it been the work of someone less iconic.