Made Men

I have to say that I wasn't enjoying 'Made Men' for the first act. About the first half hour was pretty dull. James Belushi plays Bill 'The Mouth' Mannuci – an informant who's living under the 'witness protection scheme' in the deep south of America after he dropped his mob boss in it. However, his happy new life doesn't go as planned when his former associates track him down in the belief that he's still hanging on to millions of ill-gotten money.

What follows is – effectively – the four gangsters constantly beating on him while they try and get the whereabouts of the money out of him. My initial reaction was 'how much punishment can one rather overweight kind of guy take?' And take it he does. Most people (in better physical condition) would probably have cracked (or died!) long ago, yet Belushi just keeps on coming back with one smart and defiant quip after the next. This kind of annoyed me, but then he's hardly a 'sympathetic' hero, so I guess his punishment fits his arrogance. Finally, they stop torturing him and take him on a road trip. Then things start getting a little better.

What starts off pretty dull changes into a kind of action/chase movie as he Belushi does his best to evade and escape his captors. It's hardly intellectual stuff, but there are plenty of pretty cool shoot-outs and car chases to keep us 'mindless males' entertained. The plot gets a little better as more characters are introduced – all of which are completely amoral and only interested in whether they can get their hands on Belushi's alleged loot.

Timothy Dalton is good as the Sheriff, but what he brings to the film, the 'generic British guy' who's somehow been thrown in there as part of the gang seems totally over the top and in the wrong film.

Made Men will never be a classic, but that doesn't mean it's not fun. If you're looking for a 'no brainer' where you're not bothered about actually liking any of the characters, this one could be for you. It's one of those film that you'll probably find on the telly late at night and just stick with it. Probably one to watch first, but you may not bother buying it.

While this is a HBO movie and you shouldn't expect much from it, it's often better than you think it will be. It's basically wants to be a gangster chase movie full of twists & turns and lots of high-octane action scenes. It gets close - all the actors do OK (despite some dodgy accents and rubbish dialogue), there are lots of twists but only a few of them are surprising. The action scenes are OK but they don't have any tension - basically everything just blows up and everyone has as many bullets as they need (some characters just keep reaching into their pockets for clip after clip of ammo).

This is a reasonable action movie if you see it for free on TV. If you see it for sale or rental then there's bound to be something better available.

This movie surprised me in a good way. From the box I got the impression that it was an action thriller but it was too funny to be a thriller, even though it was somewhat exciting.

There's a lot of nice one-liners and funny situations in this movie and James Belushi was born to do Bill Manucci, he does a great job. The rest of the cast ain't half-bad either and especially Timothy Dalton is a treat.

The story can get pretty confusing at times as new characters shows up during the film. Things get more complicated as nobody seldom tells the truth about things. If you don't pay attention things might get a bit messy in the end but I really liked it.

Louis Morneau isn't all that well known but he has done a perfectly OK job with this one and I never really grew impatient while watching the movie.

Made men is well worth checking out.

If you are the tight-reared highbrow type of audience. Feggettaboutit! If you just looking for fun, not bothering where your brain is at that time, its the right movie. You could call it an action movie, or just plain simple shoot-em-up. Whatever it is, you are in for some great fun.

A note about the actors. James Belushi has long stepped off his famous (or is he infamous) late brother's shadow and have proven to be a competent action star. He got his own gift for comedy, and in this film he makes full use of it. Timothy Dalton (one of my favourite Bond) plays a red-neck sheriff here. His southern accent is convincing here and there, but if you have your ears perked up like a dog, and with a knowledge that he is a Welsh actor, you might look for and find mistakes. Don't do it! Just relax and enjoy.

In the small town Harmony in the countryside, Bill Manucci (James Belushi) is hunted down by hit men and he asks his wife Debra (Vanessa Angel) to travel to Los Angeles. Bill is under the witness protection program after betraying the powerful mobster Skipper. Out of the blue, the criminals Miles (Michael Beach), Royce (Jamie Harris) and Nick (David O'Donnell) come from Chicago and break in his house. They torture Bill to find where the money that he stole from their boss is. Bill does not tell and they drive him back to Chicago in a van to meet Skipper. When they stop in a gas station, they stumble upon the redneck Sheriff Dex Drier (Timothy Dalton) that asks his Deputy Conley (Tim Kelleher) to follow their van. Along their journey, the gangsters learn that Bill stole twelve million dollars from Skipper. Bill succeeds to escape from them but the owner of a drug laboratory Kyle (Steve Railsback) and his men abduct him. There is a clash between the gangs and Bill escapes again. Miles finds him and discloses that he is an undercover FBI agent that wants the money to arrest Skipper. But they are hunted down by Kyle and his gang and also by the sheriff. Will they succeed to escape?

"Made Men" is a film that combines action with comedy that does not work well. The director Louis Morneau unsuccessfully tries to imitate Guy Ritchie's style with a plot with many twists and betrayal. However the film entertains but is absolutely predictable with unfunny characters. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Traição" ("Betrayal")