Five Thirteen

A strange bird of a movie. Brilliant in some of the work, really bad in others. Difficult to give a grade, but it ends up somewhere from mediocre to quite bad. It starts up very good, but goes down from there. Still it's in a way not entirely without interest.

The film starts off with a great tension, when a police man stops by a car where a man is sitting besides a lot of empty bear cans. We understand that there's more to it, because then tension is high, helped our with both the dramatized acting as well as the music. Then with the opening credits we get a stunning birds eye look over the big city, with big sentimental music. Loved the opening. When it starts off like this, it's very promising. But then it's like someone lost it completely.

A nice script idea, though it should maybe have been cut 15-20 minutes, to make it more tight. The film is slow paced, both in rhythm and dialog. It's quite bad-ass In a gangster' way. Maybe the film is trying to be too much? Too many stories in one? Strange ways of using retrospective techniques, as you never knows when it's happening. I think writer, editor and director Kader Ayd should have had some qualified help here, with tidying up the script and some of the other, because with good guidance this could have been a great story.

Tom Sizemore and Danny Trejo are both good psychopaths, as well as James Russo is showing their talents, and knows what to do with their roles. Some if the actors are lesser known, and they are struggling big time under the direction. Not enough to ruin all the tension, though in the beginning, because you hope you'll be able to see through it, but half way you realize it's more than enough to ruin the overall impression.

The film takes on a big job, and the ideas are close to what could have been a very effective thriller, but ending up in an awful mess.

Well, to sum it up, it ends all over the scale:

10) Surprises, and end credits song "Never been in love" by David A Stewart (of Eurythmics) and Charlotte Carter Allen. 9) Idea and inspiration. 8) Talented focused filming, and the panoramas. 7) Opening tension and opening credits. 6) The known actors' acting. 5) The music and overall score. 4) Make up, believability and the incoherent storytelling. 3) Script and the casting of the unknown actors, and their acting. 2) Rhythm, pace and ending pathos. 1) instruction, slow dialog and the overall direction.

Overall score: 3, due to the small parts which made me intrigued, in what is really an unfinished and crappy movie.

Nothing worth to mention, except for the first five minutes. The actors seem to be playing a "lame role", unconvincing and soap opera like, the music is over melodramatic adding to the lack of talent. Not even Tom Sizemore, (whom I had the chance to meet in LA in 2002, on 22nd street and Union Ave, while he filmed Robbery Homicide Division), adds anything to this movie. The scenes of the bank Robbery , taken straight out from "HEAT" and Sizemore fixation on playing a mix if DeNiro and Pacino while being on antidepressants, or maybe trying to remember his lines. The clichés, close-ups, and photography another let down, so far this movie seemed to be financed and acted by a bunch of guys who had too much time in their hands and not a single bright idea! The only one who is up for the job is Steven Bauer, on the other side of the coin I would said that the worse of all is the "actor" Malik Barnhardt, I wish that he has been shot instead of the cop! Seriously, if I were you I would pass on this one, and reinvest my time watching again HEAT, or THE TOWN or THE Italian JOB, heck I would settle down for Disney's Robin Hood for a better time!

Watch if you have 2 hours to waste. Do not expect anything and you will possibly enjoy it. Slow paced. Weak story line. Just okay soap opera.

Much better than I expected, its a good story and even though a low budget production, it did impress me with density of the characters and the way the action progresses.

In general I do like the choice of scenery and the way it was filmed. The theme is not something you see all the time and it did interest me. The music selection is also quite good.

It has many good and renowned actors, even though the main ones are not, I still think the acting in general was quite decent although in certain occasions not very convincing.

It's entertaining and does focus on so many different aspects of life, some of the characters are really confused people and do things in a way that makes you think and somehow shocks.

Worth watching.

Wasn't gonna bother reviewing this movie initially, because it's not really a movie anyone ever even heard about and it's not one really worth hearing about either.

Anyway the reason I decided to do so still is because there are only 8 reviews in total and 4 of these are with a 99% certainty phoney ones made by people who actually made the movie (the fact the only movie they have rated is this and other Kader Ayd directed movies is a clear hint of this) and the fact that they won't admit the obvious flaws.

Anyway regarding the movie it's pretty bland, a positive thing is the visual aspect it looks pretty neat for a low-budget movie with cool colours and well-placed angles but the movie is just far too messy it has like 8 different sub-plots all filled with plot holes.

Acting is, not terrible I guess overall but not very good either.

Worst part is the pace though it's supposed to be a tight thriller but it's just awfully slow at times and that's often where the weakness in the script and dialog shows itself the most.

Malik Barnhardt and Avelawalance Philips have the leads, and Tom Sizemore has a reasonably big role as well.

If you are interesting to watch it for any of the other cast-members don't expect too much of them, Taryn Manning for instance is just in it for a couple minutes in the beginning and the end.

Overall the type of movie you forgot you even watched, 2 months after the fact (maybe shorter we will see).