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.

The movie itself is styled in the late 80's/early 90's B films. The soundtrack is built into the cinematography. Yes!!!! There is a lot of action, a lot of killing but again relatable to the B genre films of past. Sure we have stars (again of the 80's/90's) in Berenger, Sizemore, Biehn and even Russo. It is not a stupendously acted story but has a unique flavor to it. We have a female antagonist who powers the film and others fall flat in their roles. A film to watch if your busy doing something else.

After watching hundreds of films, you almost know what's going to happen next and often becomes somewhat predictable. Not so with this film. The minute you recognize the main movie star and his acting is par, you can sense the movie is going to be interesting. That's what this film is all about. It was entitled 'The Velvet Spider' 's abroad, but " Stiletto " in America and tells the story of a vengeful female assassin (Stana Katic) who believes some mobsters and their leaders are responsible for her sister's death. However, the main gangster is unaware of her assumptions or her quest, is only concern with the recovery of his two million dollars. Although aware of the assassin, he believes a single cop (Paul Sloan) can stop her, if not his top hit men (Michael Biehn and William Forsythe) in his organization will. The movie is exciting, action-packed and strewed with murder, violence killings and general mayhem. The actors in the cast are superb and very convincing. It's not often a director like Nick Vallelomga and a writer like Paul Sloan are teamed to create a gritty film like this one. ****

This ultra violent female revenge film does not reveal the motivation for all of Stana Katric's carnage until it's almost over, so what precedes the revelation seems like random nonsense. If you are into this for the cast, beware that Tom Berenger is corpulent with dyed blonde hair. Tom Sizemore actually gives the best performance, expounding priceless dialect inside a strip joint, but his part is small. The movie has many problems, confusing and meaningless script, mostly bad acting, and zero likable characters. The ending is especially weak and a ridiculous conclusion to everything that precedes it. Very definitely, a movie to be avoided. - MERK

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.