akemeyer

I suppose if you enjoy nonstop death, guns and mayhem this film might be for you. But I felt that it was sorely lacking in many things, most in the areas of believability and plot line. Much of the dialogue was trite and insipid. The plot was quite disjointed and nonsensical in places linked together by spates of killing. I was embarrassed for such talents as Andre Braugher for having to appear in such a film but I suppose actors have bills to pay like the rest of us.

Last night I felt as if I were viewing a train wreck happening in slow motion when I chanced upon the premiere of this remake. "Family Affair" in it's original form was not so endlessly wonderful that it deserved an update but it still deserved a far better fate that this dreary attempt. It was doomed from the onset with the creepy bantering over Bill Davis's (Gary Cole) love life with today's Mr. French (Tim Curry). Both men are talented actors woefully miscast in this show which makes me wonder who greenlit this awful idea. The children are insipidly cloying and uninteresting, the sexual innuendo jokes vile and the entire premise utterly absurd. In fact, the only character with any dignity or class or even believability was the long-suffering Mrs. Beasley. Nothing on earth could compel me to tune in to watch this dreck a second time. Should be put out of it's misery so the actors might move on to better (hopefully, but you never know in Hollywood) projects.

Bouncers, most people take them for granted as they slip in and out of nightclubs but they are omnipresent, like the fixtures in the bar. This delightfully interesting film takes a close look at the day to day lifes of the men that enjoy inflicting physical pain upon others. You would expect men with such a strong predilection for violence would live lifes of constant brutality but the film manages to show the many facets that make up these men that do not fit in. It would be too easy to ridicule and dismiss but Steven Cantor manages to rise above that to show the spiritual, tender and even banal bits of these men. You find yourself beginning to identify with them, rooting for Black Prince to get a better job, giggling at the DeMaio twins worship of Sly Stallone and liking the garrulous Guv'nor. In turns touching, amusing and frightening but never boring. Some violence is shown in the context of the job but it doesn't feel gratuitous, merely the thing that these men do best.