Splinter

I liked this movie considering it was about gangs. Usually I cannot stand these types of movies however I found this tolerable. What I could not stand is the main female actress. She was supposed to be a hard a** personality but would break down crying over things that seemed to be not so important. The movie did not develop her character too well and yet a lot hinged on her.

The male characters were good, but not great. It was typical of the gang movie style. I am not sure why this movie caught my attention though, usually I would loose interest fast and stop watching.

There is something i liked and respected in this movie. I am not sure what is was but I will say this is a movie I probably would not watch a second time.

Splinter tells the story of Paradise Gardens and Greenville rival gangs in the setting of a rough part of Los Angeles. A cheating girlfriend ignites violence between the two gangs. There was a heavy emphasis on the cheating girlfriend. One could easily expect to see passion burn up the screen. Instead the sexy love scenes in this film could be described as an after school special romance. It did not fit with the overall gangster style that is down and dirty.

Veteran actor Tom Sizemore as corrupt Detective Cunningham lit up every scene he was in. Great to see the man back in films instead of the now canceled reality TV show "Shooting Sizemore". He gave a strong performance in this one. The kind of shady Detective that is more gangster than cop. Another stand out performance was Enrique Almeida who played Dreamer. Keep an eye out for this actor.

The main reason I did not give this one a higher score was because the worst lines I've experienced in a film happened. The corrupt cop played by Tom Sizemore forces the viewer to listen to a long and painfully bad speech about how gang war is like Chinese food take out. Using Orange Chicken, Beef Broccoli, and rice to make his point. It was awful. The rest of the writing in the film was good and then this scene happens. I was watching the film with a group of friends and it was agreed that might have been one of the worst scenes we've ever watched. Splinter it a hit and miss. It has an interesting plot that might keep most viewers tuned in.

Lost among millions of Hollywood flicks and translations of life in the barrio, urban thriller fiction and urban friction have never been translated and amalgamated into a digestible and acceptable product until the conception of Splinter. In the footsteps of its successful filmic predecessors "Ghost World," "History of Violence," or possibly "The Walking Dead," one might consider this to be another wonderful comic book/graphic novel come to life. However, not quite manufactured into an actual tangible book like its famed literal leaders, Dark Horse Films (Sin City, HellBoy) along with director Michael Olmos give life to an inner-city story that follows the conventions of traditional story telling in movies, but flesh out the skeletal in such a purposeful and personal way as to entrap us in the confusion that binds all of its characters. Entwined in a lysergic and cathartic weave, everyone, actors and audience members alike, will find themselves trying to escape from the volatile streets of Paradise Gardens and Greenville Heights acid-mimetic tirade. Supported by such talents as Sizemore, Olmos, Almeida, Gugliemi, Atis, Rivera, and Cypress Hill, you'll want to bring the homies Dusty, Trigger, and Happy along for the "trip." You betta axe somebody!...

I give this one four stars, solely because of Tom Sizemore who, for me, was the only interesting thing in this whole film. Though getting top billing, he isn't in this one nearly enough to rate it any higher. Why he wasn't given more screen time is beyond me. In fact, Resmine Atis seems to get as much, or more, screen time and, in my opinion, is as wooden an actress as I have seen on film. I kept waiting for some kind of real emotion to come out of her character, but it just wasn't to be.

I guess, perhaps, I am the wrong demographic for this kind of film, as I found the story and most of it's characters extremely dull and unimaginative. I found myself counting how many times they called each other "dog" just to keep myself amused. And, no, I can't give you the actual final count...you'll have to watch and count for yourselves....

An hour into this movie, and I thought "okay, enough now; this is as much as I can take of this crap." I haven't seen the ending, and I really don't care.

This inept piece of garbage would have even Ed Wood splitting heirs over its numerous flaws. Olmos, who is I assume either the son or nephew of that other Olmos - the one that played in "Blade Runner" - made this amateurish junk, proving for the umpteenth time that nepotism doesn't work. Not in movies, not anywhere. Movie-making is not DNA-based.

Awful acting, phony-sounding "ghetto dialogue", muddled editing, an ugly look, and a dull plot. What more can one want?