Jack of Hearts

This is a hard-boiled, film noir crime fiction drama that is big on ambition, but low on production budget. There are a ton of familiar character actor faces in this flick: M. Emmet Walsh (The Jerk, Raising Arizona, Blade Runner), Richard Edson (Platoon, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Strange Days), and Nick Mancuso (Under Siege, Total Recall 2070, Wild Palms) to name a few. The movie is set in Las Vegas, and coincidentally, a large chunk of the actors have also appeared in CSI Las Vegas. The plot is complicated, everyone has a quasi-New-York-tough-guy accents, the music is incessant, and the movie seemingly spent all of their budget on a few explosions shot in ultra slow motion. So much so, that I guess they didn't have enough money left towards the end of the movie to pay for fake blood or squibs, instead settling on gunshot noises and close ups of people's faces as they are shot. Aerial shots of Las Vegas are shaky, as if they didn't have the cash for a steady cam rig, or could only afford the low budget stock footage. Car chases seem to go on a little too long, as if they are there solely to fill time. Production issues aside, I thought that this is the perfect sort of low-budget movie to watch on Showtime or Cinemax late at night when you can't get to sleep. You can surf on your computer or do other stuff while the movie enters slow spots, and occasionally give the film your full attention during a shoot out or sex scene. This, like so many other movies in the Film Noir genre, would have greatly benefited from an increase in budget. I've seen episodes of Walker Texas Ranger with higher production values. But, they did the best with what they had. I wouldn't rent or buy this flick, but if it was on late at night and I couldn't sleep, I'd watch it. Hey, I just did. :-)

This movie is pretty bad.

The editing is horrible with terrible jump cuts and with narration that repeats itself every five minutes when Jack said something.

One the director's last movies, "Paper Bullets" was a masterpiece compared to this trash. M. Emmet Walsh and Ben Gazzara (They should know better) put in "paycheck" performances at most. The direction, writing, mostly everything about this movie is amateurish. Don't be fooled by the cool looking cover or goofy tagline

("Shoot from the hip or don't shoot at all") It's barely an action movie.

For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

A corrupt Las Vegas casino owner, Roy Murcant (Nick Mancuso) is presumed by his primary banker to be embezzling funds from his corporation, and following their demand for an audit, Murcant orders his accountant to secrete a second (clandestine) set of books that would, if revealed, clearly implicate him in illicit financial affairs, including bribery of local politicians and police officials, therewith undoubtedly resulting in an indictment, but after the bookkeeper is slain in his home, it becomes apparent that a list of homicide suspects that might benefit from possession of the damning ledgers is increasing apace. A recently dismissed Miami, Florida area police officer, Jack Newland (Louis Mandylor), terminated because of possible involvement in illegal behaviour, arrives in the Nevada city where he applies for employment in a detective assignment with Las Vegas P.D., is promptly hired by a chief of detectives who is dishonest himself, but subsequent to his again being fired, following a week upon the job, for nosing about too closely into the murder of Murcant's accountant, he is immediately offered a position that he accepts as investigator by the head of the Nevada Gaming Commission, enabling him to persist with his diligent investigative activity, all this part of a confusing plot wherein sense is in the "now you see it, now you don't" category. A bit of a blessing comes as the somewhat torpid Mandylor's character is granted the largest percentage of the film's footage, thereby reducing the amount of the first-billed and hammy Mancuso's habitual scenery chewing. The plot line is full of holes, lacking continuity and logic as well, while dialogue is poorly written and reflects tepid direction. In addition, law enforcement and paramedic procedures are ludicrously inaccurate; yet, the most wearing element to a viewer will be the obsessive use of closeups, even applied to scenes involving fisticuffs, with camera stylistics eventually leading to near nauseation. The players, lacking a strong hand at the helm, cannot accomplish much with the lines supplied to them, and choppy cutting and editing, including poorly accomplished sound synchronization, also contributes negatively to this messy melodrama that is wanting any consistent type of format.