Rockaway

"Rockaway" is not always an easy movie to watch. The brutality keeps coming, as the movie tells the story of a returning vet from Afghanistan who faces as much personal chaos in the States as he encountered at war. Nicholas Gonzalez plays Trane, the homecoming vet, whose wife and child were murdered in Rockaway when they got in the way of the local mob. The brutality is necessary, because the story (said to be truth based) can not take it easy on either the facts or its themes to be effective. Trane comes home to neighborhood warfare and economic desolation in an often overlooked pocket of America. One of his adversaries is a Russian mob enforcer played masterfully by Oleg Taktarov, depicting another Afghan vet who served in the Soviet Army. Taktarov's character Ivan is menacing, but the actor also makes him sympathetic as Ivan, like Trane, was psychologically and morally exhausted by war in the Middle East. Taktarov gets better with every role, and when he's on the screen, "Rockaway" delivers its messages with breathless impact.

I checked this movie out because I was a HUGE fan of the directors' horror film Salvage (if you have not seen Salvage, check it out, because it's one of the best low-budget horrors I've ever seen and just a good movie, period).

This film, though, just didn't have that same magic. The story follows a veteran who returns from war to discover his wife and baby murdered and his neighborhood under the control of ruthless drug dealers. Realizing the police are complicit, the veteran sets out to take revenge.

I guess that my problem with this film just comes down to tone. It tries to have serious moments and funny moments, and in between all of that there's not enough character development. The lead actor is fine (as are most of the actors), but most of the secondary characters are too thinly drawn. The main characters seem to have a lot of contempt for women, and the film itself often treats them as punchlines or sex objects. There's a "funny" conversation between two of the bad guys about how to hit a prostitute to punish her. So, okay, I'm supposed to care about violence towards the veteran's wife and sister, but laugh about the abuse of the prostitutes?

There is a decent stretch of plotting in the middle as the veteran infiltrates the drug organization and begins to play the different bad guys against each other. This was the strongest part of the film and had the best action. But the third act felt sloppy and even confusing. Without revealing any spoilers, I got to the last moments and I was like "What?".

If I hadn't had so much faith in these directors from their previous film, I probably would not have stuck with it. There were strengths to the film, but not enough to overcome the tonal inconsistency and disrespectful treatment of female characters.

Rockaway straight to video was GREAT! Nicholas Gonzalez is Trane a battle proved war veteran from a tough tour in Afghanistan back home in Queens the neighborhood that took out his family becomes his center of rage. He becomes hell bent on taking out anyone involved in crime. Crook brothers turn it up with no slow boring parts. Oleg Taktarov sets things off as a "redfella" leading a Russian crime family. The action looked good as any movie. I could be talking crazy but Nicholas Gonzalez was way more better than hot shot actor from Harsh Times.

What it came down to me was how real the Crooks brothers kept it. They showed what Queens hard living is. Rent it or buy it you cant lose people.

People do not understand cinema. I see the movie The Fighter with top stars and sure it gets Oscars or The Godfather oh ya great movie. This movie here the main actor is just a normal man. And, yes, he acts normal and looks normal. But the power that can come from a normal man explodes in this movie. The people who rated this movie low or complained about it are people with a low IQ. They probably don't like it cuz they like crime, like the Godfather. The godfather is trash. This little dude in this movie mostly uses intelligence to take down the mob and its godfather. I cannot stand the movie the godfather because America is praising crime and gangsters. This movie shows how one mans determination to stop a gang of thugs is expelled mostly with intelligence training determination and more. I cannot stand the Oscar and academy award panel- they do not know how to judge films. Where do the academy award panel judges get educated? Or are they rich people using money to make mistakes?

Both the wife & I just turned off another unbearable movie, I spotted Rockaway and was look love I grew up there lets check this out what a nice surprise this little gem was for us.

Granted this is not a big dollar movie but it had a good storyline, plenty of action, some humorous scenes, it had a nice breakup to keep it interesting.

The acting was all excellent in our opinion very watchable REVENGE type movie.