Inferno no Faroeste

Oh Mickey, What a Pity, I just don't understand. Rourke plays second-fiddle to Danny Trejo is this average blend of horror and western revenge. He sleep-walks through his role as the devil, who gives Trejo's assassinated gunfighter a chance to return to Earth to avenge those who betrayed him (led by his half-brother Anthony Michael Hall). It's adequate, with plenty of gunfights that become a bit repetitive and suffer too many short cuts.

I'm a huge fan of both Trejo and Rourke and seeing them on screen together was a lot of fun. But their star quality charisma sadly fails to lift this movie out of the muck of poor writing and pacing.

The production seems to be about on par with a Sy-Fy channel "original" movie, better than a straight to DVD production but not by much.

The western elements are played for full cartoon caricature stereotype and look decent enough while being obviously anachronistic, there's just no real excitement to the movie at all. It's very standard revenge plot action wannabe without the budget and flash to carry it off. You know everything you need to know in the first 5 minutes of the movie and if you are like me and have seen a lot of action movies you'll even be able to accurately predict many of the set action sequences before they happen.

I would have liked to see a less action oriented flick with the same premise that let Trejo and Rourke's acting chops shine. As it stands the movie is pretty forgettable.

Not recommended.

While it is nice to see Mickey Rourke in any role and Danny Trejo has become Legend (one way or another) with Machete, this movie is not really great. It does have some really good costumes though and the set design is good too (I can't imagine them having a lot of money to spend, so it must be from another set or shoot ... no pun intended).

Action scenes are OK, the story not complicated, it's more or less what you'd expect from a movie like this. Dina Meyer has not really that much to do and she is the female lead in this. The angle on the good versus bad thing is not that bad, because it's not really a good guy doing the work here. Though obviously it doesn't really make that much sense (the "Deal" that is). But you shouldn't start thinking with movies like these

Danny Trejo is an acquired taste. Since being given cult status by the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, fearless Danny has now earned headliner status in movies built around him. Good for Danny, he's paid his dues. That being said, even the iconic presence of Mr. Trejo can't save this direct-to-DVD supernatural western. Trejo has maybe five states of being and facial expression in his acting repertoire. but only two are utilized by the director of this spooky oater. Danny looks grim. Danny looks grimmer. That's all folks. Still he tries, but he's just not cut out for leading man status.

A paper thin plot drags its story out for around 100 minutes here, filling the spaces between the actual story with repetitive gunfights, slow motion death, general mayhem, and an occasional visit to Hell, where the real-life horror show called Mickey Rourke pretends to be Satan (the character is referred to as "The Blacksmith" in the credits). Danny has been betrayed by his homies, the Blackwater Gang. His half brother Red (played by a nearly unrecognizable Anthony Michael Hall) murders him and Danny ends up in Hell. Tortured by Mickey Rourke (in a sleepwalking tour-de-force of acting as Satan), Danny strikes a bargain to win his soul back. Mickey wakes up long enough to accept this bargain using the worst dubbed-in voice for Rourke imaginable. Danny returns to life, and sets out to kill his homies in revenge. End of plot.

This could have been really interesting in the hands of a better director. Unfortunately, no one told the actual director Roel Reiné that he wasn't making a music video. This entire movie is shot in 2-6 second scenes, underlit and too dark to penetrate, too many flashy jumpcuts, etc. If you don't come out of a viewing of this without acquiring epilepsy, lucky you. The end resolution is poorly thought out. Still, the Romanian locations and costumes are worth a look here and earn the first two stars I give. Danny T. gets the other two for really giving his all...I think. Maybe Mickey Monster Rourke slipped Danny one or two of the sleeping pills he must have been gulping down during filming. An interesting/headache inducing flick for those with short attention spans.

To all the fans of this genre or the actors involved in the making of this film; I have this to say, "This one will hurt, and not in a funny way, don't do it to yourselves."

Do yourself a favor and miss this film. It tarnishes the good memories we have of these actors with its lackluster existence.

This films Tombstone should read;

"Killed by the epic mediocrity of Director Roel Reiné."

If you truly love watching Danny Trejo, no matter how bad the film he is in, or seeing Mickey Rourke deliver lines as if he was trying to understand a sign language interpreter; even if Anthony Michael Hall can do no wrong in your heart, this is not something you want to see.

It seriously damaged my respect for just about everyone involved in making it come to life.

I am a film editor, cinematographer and even worked as a Zombie stuntman. So, film, and especially cheesy low budget film is an area of expertise for me. I even have the honor of teaching a film class, "Aesthetics of Editing".

So if you got this far, at least you know now I am not just some film bashing wingnut; some jerk with no idea how film is made, why it is good, bad or meh.