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.
