Gangster Exchange

I expected to see many more negative reviews about this movie since the average cinephile is dead serious and can't enjoy things for what they are - in this case, stupid fun. So I was pretty relieved to see that other people agreed with me: this movie is not good at all and it's great. Thanks to everyone over the age of 9 having access to non-linear editing software, anyone can make a zero budget action film. Gone are the no-budget indies that were all slice of life and dramedy, enter the "fog machine and CGI helicopter" era of indie filmmaking. For the most part, the vast majority of these movies are garbage. Not "so bad it's good" bad, just bad. But every once in a while we strike bad movie comedy gold like Gangster Exchange. A movie that is bad with the extra-added perk of being funny as hell.

Battleship Potemkin, this movie is not. The pace of this movie is sure to turn a lot of people off. It never gets chaotic, it doesn't slow down for the dramatic bits. It just feels like "here's a scene. Here's another scene. This is also a scene." It's quite unimpressive. But it's also the perfect flow for a movie you're not planning on taking seriously from the getgo. It almost pleads with you to drink along with the characters. See, if it were all comedy, the movie would feel dreadful. And if it were all airsoft props and CG muzzle flash, the movie would feel dreadful. However, due to the irregular editing style, it's impossible to expect what kind of scene you're going into next, which I found refreshing. Couple that kind of amateurism with a set of ancillary characters whose only purpose are to liven the picture up and you can't help but laugh.

The story is out of a can, the antagonists can't act their way out of a high school rendition of Grease, there's bad techno playing throughout the entire film and the hero is carrying a toilet around for an hour of screen time. The ending is predictable and satisfying, the obligatory party scene is loud and stupid, and the lead is attractive and likable. That's really it. So why'd I give it an 8? Because I can. Sorry, snobs.

Christopher Russell as Marco and Nobuya Shimamoto as Hiro make a buddy-buddy pair as appealing as Paul Newman/Robert Redford, and as expectantly to be looked for in the future. Russell has the athletic good looks - and hair! - of Tom Cruise in a role that Cruise would certainly turn down, due to the very unDianetics partying and vendettas. What raises the film to being totally Toronto is not only Marco carrying the drug toilet around with him throughout. But also, what I will not give away to future viewers, the identity of the Japanese-speaking PhD in Chemistry who solves our two friends problems. The Tarantino content of guns-and-drugs is treated in a way that calls for the audiences' complicity. The writer/director gets away from the aristocratic attitude on this subject. This is an ORDINARY PEOPLE'S movie.

A really stupid Canadian movie that is assembled from the wreckage of other bad movies that think they're so clever but really aren't.

Russell isn't Tom Cruise. Maybe he'd be good enough as Cruise's stunt double? He's just another himbo.

I hate that crap like this seems to get made so easily while good movies have to suffer an exhausting process of getting greenlit because of all the morons in the world today.

Eating candy and making out in the dark while ignoring this movie is the only reason it should be on around you.

The buddy cop thing can work depending on the talents of its actors, but these are all stand-in types who appear to have been promoted into leads.

There are good Canadian movies out there, so skip this one.

So clearly not a movie with a big budget, it's still better than any B movie. Good story, characters and thoroughly engaging. If you can relate to anything in the movie it's even better, and more engaging. I don't know what that other reviewers (2 at this point) are going on and on about. It's simple. Most movies are stupid. The stupidness in this movie is just cuz they aren't playin the smartest guys, so it kinda makes sense. It only makes the movie better.

The characters are almost realistic.... ya! Go figure. Clearly the writer/director knows people like the ones portrayed in the film, and there are some crazy and/or scary dudes in the story. They act a lot like the ones I ... uh can't confirm or deny knowing ;) The only thing bad thing is that the bikers seem off, they're kinda whack. But there is reason given for this early on, so.... since the rest of the movie rocks - forgiven! It even shows functional instructions for a rudimentary Y spliff. Amazing. Now I'm going on..

If you think it might be your kind of movie, it probably totally is.

Gangster Exchange definitely needs to be recategorised because, being listed as just an action movie (on IMDb), that's what potential viewers expect and, whilst it IS an action movie, it isn't the kind that action fans would have expected. That is why it needs to be also categorised as a comedy and crime movie.

Maybe I'm a bit slow but, when I started watching Gangster Exchange (expecting, as I say, a hard-hitting action flick), it concerned me a little that I kept falling into spells of laughter at regular intervals and thinking to myself, "Why the heck am I laughing at what is supposed to be a tough gangster film?" Now, had I seen that it was supposed to be funny, I would have gone into it with a totally different mind-set - and therein lies a major shortcoming.

Not that being a comedy (as well as an action, gangster flick) made Gangster Exchange anywhere near being a better movie. Don't get me wrong. But it would have had me in a different frame of mind to watch it. As it is, this is not a great movie by anyone's reckoning. I had never heard of any of the actors and the budget was quite obviously low. Actually, the comedy aspect was probably better served than the action!

So, if you find yourself in the DVD shop and can't see anything you haven't already seen to hire and gangster Exchange jumps off the shelf at you (because you are in the Action section as that is what you like) AND you are bored to death and wondering how to fill a cold, wet afternoon, it may be worth a dollar to rent. But if it isn't cold and wet, go for a walk in the park. Your time would have been better spent!