Sacrifice

Was there anyone really clamoring for a reuniting of Cuba Gooding Jr. and Christian Slater, especially considering their previous team-up ("Lies & Illusions") was one of the worst direct-to-DVD movies of recent years? To make matters worse, this production is not only Canadian, but it's written and directed by one of Canada's worst filmmakers (Damian Lee). To be fair, the end results are somewhat better than "Lies & Illusions". For a cheap Canadian movie, the visual look of the movie is slicker and more expensive-looking that you might think. And it's nice to see a Canadian movie actually set in Canada (though at times the movie seems reluctant to admit that fact.) But overall, the movie is very forgettable. The combination of Lee's bad direction and inadequate screenplay make a number of moments in the movie somewhat incoherent. Gooding's performance is nothing special, and Slater is unconvincing and unintentionally amusing playing a priest. The movie isn't aggressively bad, but it creeps along at a sluggish pace because there simply isn't enough story here.

Come on, Cuba and Christian! I know you've screwed up your careers enough to be now stuck in direct-to-DVD productions, but surely you could still find better scripts than this! Sure, I know you have bills to pay, but you could at least volunteer your services for a great director's independent film between making schlock like this.

well, from the first scene to the end... a waste of my time... this movie is sooooo bad. When I saw and read the box at the video store, I thought: okay I like Cuba and Christian... til I started to watch... I gave it my due attention and suffered until the end but OMG... time I will never get back...

My first impressions were: Bad lighting, bad cinematography, bad direction, and then... bad acting! This looks more like a film school project gone wrong then a feature film... It even looks like it was shot on early HD ENG cameras...

And if you are brave, start watching the behind the scenes featurette... they didn't even use a proper mic to record these (terribly done) interviews. This whole project should have been terminated from day 1.

Sacrifice has a pretty solid story going for it. A haunted cop befriends a priest at a local church all while dealing with his next case. The story takes off with a drug dealer who wants out and is denied that option, so he steals a statue filled with drugs and hides it in a local church. Now the dealers are after him and Cuba Gooding Jr must protect the dealers little sister.

The direction shines in parts and in other parts it seems very dull. Without going into much detail of the story, the film could have been much better with different music and more solid editing. The film is edited as if it is a TV movie.

Pros: Solid Perormances from Cuba Gooding Jr, Christian Slater, Devon Bostick, and Kim Coates.

Good Ending Shootouts and very good emotional ties between characters.

Cons: The editing, it really hurts the films. The music does not fit and is quite cheap. Some supporting players are very bad in their performances as well. The statistics in the opening and end credits are boring and take away from the story.

All in all its fairly entertaining especially in the last 20 minutes, but editing may make you cringe in spots.

I seen the other reviews and some gave it high votes and some very poor which then forced me to watch it.. Boy should I have listened to the low votes its terrible. Acting is all over the place and not in any good way even the fake irish accents of some of the cast were enough to make me cringe. Storyline had no depth and I wouldn't even say it was good enough for a TV movie as it simple had nothing of interest in it to keep people occupied. I sit here puzzled as to why the actors even made this movie as its the worst thing I have seen in a long time. Best advice on this movie is give it a complete wide birth not only is it not worth a rental fee its definitely not worth the waste of electricity to power a TV!

I am always interested in a Cuba Gooding Jr. movie, as his personality can carry even crappy plots. I feel bad for Cuba as the last few films he has made have been TV movie dramas at best.

This movie is no exception as the film work and writing are slow and dull. Though there were a few good scenes, such as the scene when Cuba visits the snake man.

I would advise against watching this movie, it is a drama/action film, but is missing the action and drama to keep you interested beyond the first 20-minutes.

Though I was able to watch the entire thing, I do feel it was overall a waste of time and I wish I had not seen this film.

It reminds me of a late night HBO rerun movie that you might watch if you have nothing else to do, and even then you probably won't walk away from the film even remembering that you saw it or anything interesting in it.

Though I love Cuba's acting, and I hope he hits a few more home runs in his career, this is not one of them.