Once Fallen

This film with a budget of only $650,000 Writer/Director/Actor Ash Adams should be applauded for putting together such a stellar cast and really pulled it off. If you're a fan of independent film do yourself a favor and see Once Fallen. The acting is superb and the plot develops very well. This film is about a family and their close knit friends having to live with the hard choices they make, and the price they pay for those choices. I've seen countless low budget films and this is one of the best I've ever seen. His performance playing a dirty cop is both captivating and terrifying. Once Fallen is a crime drama with a very touching relationship between fathers and sons. The strong performances of the cast adds to the raw emotion of the film. Watch the Blu-ray version so you can appreciate how good this film looks. This film deserves more attention!

I should have liked this movie. It has so many elements that I normally enjoy: Ed Harris, prison drama and action, criminal brotherhood, and it's an indie film (which I tend to prefer to large studio movies).

Unfortunately, all of these elements were combined very poorly. The result is on par with a made-for-TV movie or, at best, some crappy Dean Cain or Casper Van Diem movie shown at 3am on TNT ("Starship Troopers" excluded, of course).

And though I feel like 2/10 is a harsh score (especially for a low-budget indie film), every time I reconsider the score my mind flashes to many poorly written, poorly acted, poorly directed scenes that are burned into my memory. It's a bad movie; 2/10 is fair.

Brian presley (was on port charles, for years) is chance, just out of prison. Life growing up was pretty rough, and his dad, played by ed harris is also in prison. It's got some issues; we're twenty minutes in, and the plot seems to be that he has to take care of his kid, now that mom has taken off. And chance seems to owe someone money, although we have no idea who or why. They hardly ever say anyone's name, so we're never really sure who anyone is. The sound level is sometimes so low, we have to really crank the volume, which is annoying. Now it's thirty minutes in, we find out that dad is running a drug syndicate from inside prison, and doesn't want chance to be any part of it. It gets pretty messy. Swearing, blood, and violence. This has some pretty well known names in smaller parts... rance howard (ron's dad), sharon gless (cagney), alison eastwood (daughter of clint), amy madigan is rose. The story has legs, but needs a tune-up. Could have been better. The acting performances were fine. Written and directed by ash adams. Was on ryan's hope, acted a bit, and has moved on to writing and directing.

This film is about a young man, Chance (Brian Presley - Borderland), who has a lot of problems with his life, that he must overcome.

His father Liam, (Ed Harris) is currently in prison for beating a man to death, and has been elected head of the Aryan Nation, which gives him certain privileges, but also some obligations that he must fulfill.

Chance's best friend Beat (Chad Lindberg - The Fast and the Furious) has a lot of psychological problems, and is currently involved with a notorious drug-dealer, Rath (Ash Adams - Lionheart), who also happens to be a crooked cop, and doesn't take no for an answer.

Apart from these problems, Chance has just found out that his ex-girlfriend Kat, (Alison Eastwood - Tightrope) has been raising his child while he was in jail, but now decides to split and leave the kid with him, all the while Rath is hassling him, Beat, and Liam.

Chance gets some help from his old pal, bar-owner Eddie (Peter Weller - RoboCop), who in return expects Chance to do some street-fighting for him. Random fights is the only job Chance can get, apart from dealing drugs, but as he now has a young son to raise, and recently finds new love in Pearl (Taraji P. Henson - Hustle & Flow), who just happens to be black - something Liam's fellow Aryan brothers certainly doesn't approve of, and they send their number two, Sonny (Peter Greene - Pulp Fiction) to tell him about it in person.

The thing about this film that makes it fall beneath the cracks of goodness, is the sheer lack of common sense. For starters, it doesn't make any sense, that: 1) Liam became the head of the Aryan nation, but doesn't seem very well-liked by ANY of the other Aryans. 2) Chance's girlfriend just leaving her son with him - an almost complete stranger - after raising the kid for 5 years! 3) The part about Rath ending the way it did - made NO sense whatsoever.

In the end, it all just feels like the story could've gone in SO many other directions, which would've been better. And the producers had an all-star stellar cast of character-actors, which they didn't use for anything at all!

I mean, the movie has Richard Tyson (Kindergarten Cop), Antonio Vargas (Starsky & Hutch), Jesse D. Goins (RoboCop), Sticky Fingaz (Onyx), Rance Howard (Ed Wood), and Steve friggin' Railsback (Lifeforce), and a LOT of other great character-actors, but they're all just completely WASTED in this production, only half of them getting any lines, and the rest just appearing in a few minutes with hardly any screen-time at all... it makes no sense, not to use any of them for anything.. why not just cast some random unknowns instead?

I felt like a good opportunity was missed here. Some of the points came across well, but mostly it was just wasted.

If you're a fan of independent film do yourself a favor and see Once Fallen. I've seen countless low budget films and this is one of the best I've seen. Writer/Director/Actor, Ash Adams should be applauded for putting together such a stellar cast with a budget of only $650,000. And his performance as a dirty cop is both captivating and terrifying. Once Fallen is a crime drama with a very touching theme about fathers and sons at the center. The strong performances of the cast adds to the raw emotion of the film. Watch the Blu-ray version so you can appreciate how good this film looks. This film deserves more attention!