Once Upon a Time in Venice

Pure shtick that reminded me of the old "Airplane" movies. Bruce Willis does comedy well and has a great supporting cast: - a thin and bi-polar John Goodman - Famke Janssen in a much lighter role that her Blacklist espionage - a little bit of Kal Penn playing a 3rd world bodega clerk.

Willis has to jump through a web of interconnected heists in hope of recovering his stolen dog. The bits are klutzy and brilliant to the end. While I was amused, I cannot recommend over all the other greater movies.

'Once Upon a Time in Venice Beach' was a very different film to that which I was expecting. The main reason for this? I didn't expect a comedy with Bruce Willis in the lead role. When I think of Willis I do not think of funny. He's good at the sarcastic one-liners (think 'Die Hard') evenly spread throughout a film, but not trying to carry the whole thing on his humour alone. He doesn't have the talent for that, nor did he have the script here to be fair. He may not be a funny man, but I don't think many actors in Hollywood would have been able to turn this material into something funny. There wasn't a whole lot to like about this film.

The next problem with the film is that it never actually feels like a film. It feels like the pilot for a TV series. Sure enough I looked up writer/director Mark Cullen's profile and most of his previous work has come in television (with the exception of another Bruce Willis cop movie 'Cop Out' which was also not received well). It's quite a bizarre experience to watch a film structured like a TV episode because it so rarely happens. Surely it's not that hard of a mistake to avoid? There is no focus though and the story just keeps chopping from story to story - none of which are particularly interesting. I suppose the theory was if we don't have one good story to tell let's just tell five mediocre ones instead.

There are a tonne of cameos in the film by faces you'll recognise (most have long since passed the peak of their fame), but sadly none of the them are given any decent material to work with either. No effort or thought has gone into what they could do in their cameo scenes, they simply show show up, spew out a few lines to advance the story a little, and then are gone. It's almost like they only found out they were getting that particular actor in on the morning of shooting and didn't have any time to prepare something for them. Very disappointing.

The only positive I took from the film was John Goodman. He was literally the only one in the entire film who got a laugh out of me, and the movie is undoubtedly at its strongest when he is on screen. Willis looked tired to be honest. It's sad to see, but he has clearly lost his love for the industry and it is coming across brutally on screen. This is sadly yet another very poor film to add to his résumé.

An ex-Los Angeles detective turned PI seeks out the ruthless gang that stole his dog.

Director, writer Mark Cullen's entertaining beach bum action caper which sees Bruce Willis as Steve Ford return to centre stage instead of small cameos. Thankfully Willis isn't just there to just pick up a pay cheque, its very much his own film, and he's as cheeky and charming as ever.

The on location feel captures the heat of Venice Beach and Cullen offers plenty of colourful locale visuals. The characters are all quirky and larger than life including humorous Jason Momoa as mumbling gangster Spider and Steve's heartfelt troubled friend Dave (excellent John Goodman). Things get more and more outlandish as Steve tries to solve a number of weird cases. Sadly, Famke Janssen is wasted as Katey Ford.

With echoes of the recent The Nice Guys (2016) there's a few shoot outs and double crosses with hints of watered down Tarantino thrown in for good measure, Cullen like the moments of comedy set these up with perfect timing thanks to some effective staging and Matt Deizel fine editing.

Overall, while not Willis' best it's an almost return to likes of Last Boy Scout form rather than Die Hard, still it's good fun and worth a viewing.

80s action icon Bruce Willis makes an average of four films a year. That is twice more than what buddy Stallone does yearly. Trouble is, these films are either poorly marketed or badly written or Willis is tasked with supporting roles opposite new actors in lead roles. Which is why Once Upon a Time in Venice has potential but how well it performs will be anyone's guess. There are lots of established actors along with Willis in an interesting setup that resembles a cross between a Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino film. Playing a retired cop turned private investigator (Moonlighting anyone?), Willis plays a loner whose dog is kidnapped by petty criminals. To get his dog back, Willis' Steve Ford must navigate through a series of heists and dodgy characters, including loan sharks and dimwitted gangsters.

It's a film that sounds very familiar and doesn't require a whole lot of thinking to sit through. But as an action-comedy, Once Upon a Time in Venice is a misfire that should have gone straight to streaming video, or the type of film you watch in a hotel room before a flight. There are moments that are supposed to be funny, like Ford's best friend (John Goodman) going through a divorce, or Ford trying to infiltrate a gangster hideout (inaudible mumbling from Jason Momoa), but there's something missing. There are other popular actors too, albeit shoehorned in bit roles that never add up to the overall story.

Debut director Mark Cullen has a long history writing for TV and it shows. Most scenes in the film feel disjointed or like skits at best. At worst it feels like the script was filmed soon after first draft. That's a shame because this film had all the juicy ingredients for a fun crime caper along the likes of Snatch or Jackie Brown. Instead, the film is weighed down by dull-as-lead directing that even John McClane wouldn't shoot his way through. Speaking of Willis, and at 62, there are still plenty of good films he can make as long as the choice is right. Let's just hope Willis doesn't disappear down the rabbit hole like Nic Cage.

Star power is not what it used to be, I guess.

Little surprised this movie did not get a bigger released. Bruce Willis stars with a few other well-known folks, well known enough to get a bigger release than it did. The movie is OK at best granted, but I've seen worse films with a similar set of names get a bigger release.

Loved Bruce Willis in it. Very fun and vibrant not phoning it in even though this is a phone it in Movie. Jason Momoa is in it, and it feels like you'd want to see Momoa and Willis in an action movie together (Even though it could turn out like Mona in a film with Stallone(Bullet to the Head ), but Momoa was attempting more comedy in this action comedy. He wanted to do something funny and he was funny, or rather had a lot of funny moments. Oh and I should mention John Goodman is in this. Cause who wouldn't want to see a flick with Goodman in it right?

Overall, saying it's a good movie is too much. It's OK. I'd expect more from a movie Willis actually put some effort into rather than just making an over gloried cameo for a check like I've seen him do in movies of this stature before, but I did love him in it and it is very good for some solid laughs.

So, not a waste of time at all.

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