Fino alla fine

"No Way Back" sticks FBI agent Crowe in the middle of a crude conglomeration of assorted Mafia weirdos, FBI agents, cops, Yakuza, and an airline flight attendant in its attempt to mix action with attitude and tongue-in-cheek humor. The result is a messy plot which accomplishes little save lurching from one mediocre action scene to the next. An okay no brainer for insomniacs.

If you`re a fan of Toyokawa Etsushi, as I am, then fast forward over all the scenes that he isn`t in.(And enjoy the closeup of his gorgeous hands when he`s looking for a weapon in the airplane toilet.) Even most of the scenes that he *is* in are stupid. Russell Crowe fans will probably say the same thing about their man.

What starts off as a fairly promising film completely collapses after the first 20 to 30 minutes. Kelly Hu plays rookie FBI agent "Seiku Kobayshi" who volunteers to go undercover as a call-girl in order to plant a listening device into the bathroom of a dangerous white supremacist organization. Once inside the organization she guns down the leader, "Victor Serlano" (played by Ian Zierling) and several of his men. When FBI agent "Zack Grant" (played by Russell Crowe) arrives on the scene, Seiku jumps out of the high-rise to her death. During the follow-up investigation it is learned that Seiku had very recently contacted an important leader of the Yakuza named "Yuji" (Etsushi Toyokawa). This results in speculation that she was somehow coerced by Yuji to kill Victor, so FBI agent Zack Grant is sent to Japan to investigate. A gun-battle then ensues and Zack arrests Yuji in order to take him back to the United States. Meanwhile, Frank Serlano (Michael Lerner), the father of the white supremacist leader, kidnaps Zack's son "Eric" (Andrew J. Ferchland) in order to pressure Zack to bring Yuji to him. On the way back "Mary" (Helen Slater) is introduced into the film as one of the flight attendants who becomes inadvertently involved in the scenario. So far so good. Unfortunately, it is at this point where the film begins to deteriorate as the audience is treated to one far-fetched incident after another. While Helen Slater played her part adequately, the same can't be said for Russell Crowe as this wasn't one of his better performances. But the main responsibility for this fiasco belongs on the shoulder of the director/writer, Frank A. Cappello. With the cast that he had he should have been able to produce a much better film. Instead he chose stunts and gimmicks over good acting and a reasonable plot. What a shame.

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. It's a well-produced, good-looking action/thriller flick with sharp, witty dialogue and great performances from the lead actors. Russell Crowe is charismatic and very watchable. I especially liked the morally ambiguous tone - Crowe's character isn't a clean-cut good guy. Well worth a look.

An undercover operation goes wrong for FBI Agent Zack Grant (Russell Crowe) when new agent Seiko (Kelly Hu) goes vigilante and kills everybody including herself. Eight people are dead and Grant is blamed. He wants to find the truth. It turns out that Seiko had been calling Yakuza member Yuji Kobayashi and Grant goes to investigate. Gangster Frank Serlano (Michael Lerner) blames Grant for his son's death in that operation, and kidnaps Grant's son. Flight attendant Mary (Helen Slater) comes in after 30 minutes and has a funny turn.

This movie tries so hard to be a stylish action thriller. Writer/director Frank A. Cappello misses the mark and strays into cheesy territories. The over the top acting, the bad style, and the splashy action does nothing but strip the movie of any realism. The only good thing is the funny turn that Helen Slater takes in this movie. It's a welcome relief from all the ridiculous seriousness.