Stiletto

I just watched STILETTO, a film about a female assassin who is killing members of a ruthless criminal organization. One of her victims survives, a crime boss whom she shared a past with but her betrayal breaks his heart, so he hires a crooked homicide cop to track her down before the police get to her.

I read nothing but negative reviews about this, so I am the first to write a positive review! It's a very good film...if you like violence! It is brutal, I mean you get savage beatings, lots of stabbings people getting shot (including one brilliant scene!) and best of all it's all on-screen.

The acting is fine by all, I really don't know what people expect from a film, if you think you like the sound of it going by my write up, I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

I was expecting very little from this, given the low rating here, but found myself pleasantly surprised. This is really a much better film than it's being given credit for. There's a depth of characterisation in the script that you don't find in the average B-movie. The cast, too, are well above average. Most of the actors are past-their-prime Hollywood notables who may not earn the big bucks any more but can still turn in a decent performance.

The action sequences are decent and, for the most part, realistic.

I was surprised to discover that the burly cop was actually the writer of the script.

All in all, this is definitely worth a watch.

Raina (Stana Katic - "Castle", Quantum of Solace)is out for revenge. She takes it in the opening on a former lover (Tom Berenger), who manages to survive only, as he jokes, because of his lifestyle - a big belly! He puts Beck (Paul Sloan) on her tail, but she is hard to catch as she pops up all over the city like Jason, slashing her way through various bad guys, even Tom Sizemore, who imagines himself a player after leaving a group of Nazis who sell crack to teen girls before turning them out.

At the same time, we are seeing Amanda Brooks really do a dance on some others. She & her boyfriend Lee (Michael Biehn - Aliens, The Terminator) have an interesting way of removing tats; some massive gunfights, and lots more deaths.

A good slasher/gangster film.

Here's a bad female assassin film attempting to be a cross between le femme nikita and the godfather; both far superior movies.

A Russian woman(Stana Katic who is actually Croatian and Serbian) as a deadly girl seeking revenge for her sisters' gang rape by a bunch of neo-Nazis somehow tied in with a Greek mafioso type played by veteran actor Tom Berenger in a Brando like Don Corleone lite. what's missing is Coppola and every other aspect of the great Godfather and of course the awesome Marlon Brando.

Every gangster cliché is used here from missing money to torture scenes and rival Mexican bad guys in night club shoot out that borders on the ridiculous. I'll give it a 5 as a very average crime- drama with decent acting and a by the numbers script.

Main Flaw Low Budget attributing to shortened story telling and cheap cinematography. Knowing Stana Katic was playing lead in this movie i knew that there must be some intelligent attribute to this motion picture, having seen her other efforts previously particularly "Castle" and "Faceless". Both of the former mentioned i recommend. The main flaw of the movie is that it suffers from low budget and short script. Budget is something that can be acquired after-wards if the script demands it but if it doesn't have much potential for a memorable experience for the audience then a high budget cant save the movie. The low budget is evident in the shortened city scape footages and the cheap camera technology used (cheaper in comparison to wild things III, which i think didn't have a decent enough script to be given some very good camera action angles and cinematography and colors). The main attribute that would really appall audiences is the hasty and cheap cinematography. It could be said that Stana Katic's performance is wasted in this movie having seen her in this endeavour she can make a decent action-heroine if not the best, rivaling 'Carrie Anne Moss'. All in all i would not say that it suffer from bad acting as almost all front and lead actor in this movie with the exception of "Stana Katic" and "Paul Sloan" are or were mainstream cinema veterans having starred in well known movies. i also can't say that it suffers from bad script or bad dialogue because it struggles hard not to sound clichéd or contrived , which is an intelligent attribute.

negative: low budget:(true)-1 point hastened storytelling:(true)-1 point bad cinematography(camera-everything):(true)-1 point needed something more:(true)-1 point All leads needed more air - time :(true) -1 point Explanation for the main characters killing skills: (true) -1 point ending needed more:-1 the cover gives a false impression of major motion picture or a high octance good budget action flick within the league of punisher(2004): -1 positive: good acting from all lead actors: +1 not a bad scrpit: +1 good casting:+1 main actor(Stana Katic) good performance:+1 All kills warranted:+1 ending was apt:+1

negative:positive -8:+5 movie:lost whether to watch it : Will be disappointed due to poor cinematography, but won't be by Stana katic's performance, i would recommend instead watching any of her Castle episodes or "Faceless", but then a huntress/killer Stana you'd be deprived of. Watch only if you wanna watch a killer-Stana with a feminine rage and a masculine charisma for killing.