Underworld

This is one of the best black comedies that I have ever seen!

Oh, it's highly, highly, highly underrated!

I've found the tape in action and in drama, but never in comedy, where I feel that it belongs!

Take for example the first scene involving the Red Car: Slow buildup, absolutely bloody execution, glass and flesh everywhere; and then an approving nod and the gunner exclaiming in nonchalant fashion "This is gonna be the best goddamn father's day I've ever had."

It doesn't stop there. We have the execution of a beyond-amazingly beautiful girl (Traci Lords) for nearly nothing other than a bored antagonist's whim; we don't even really know if she's suspected of cheating on him... he's just... bored.

Add to this a hilarious bar scene that might begin something like "a bunch of assassins walked into a bar..."... they're tired of waiting, so they clean their guns... they're bored at the delay, so they shoot the bottles; they're frustrated at their employer's procrastination, so they pull out automatic weapons and unload on the bar, the bartender... and finally the outright hilarious shot of the scariest of them putting a gun to his head: they shoot each other.

Yes, it's terribly violent; yes, it's not for everyone. But this is the one of the most fabulously overlooked films ever! Awesome!

Check it out, but ignore the section you found it in.

This movie is an obvious rip-off of Underworld USA starring Cliff Robertson. You owe it to yourself to invest a couple of hours and watch the original. I found this one to be disjointed and hard to follow, with a lot of scenes that didn't make much sense. I'm not opposed to violence in movies but this whole thing seemed to be nothing more than an excuse to blow away one person after another, many of whom were only marginally connected with the storyline. With everyone else getting killed, all through the movie I wondered why Frank didn't just blow Johnny's brains out. He certainly could have and Johnny sure didn't act like someone that could be trusted. Another thing that bothers me is the sex scenes; why do these people have sex with their clothes on? Is that supposed to turn us on? Surely they didn't think they had a shot at a PG rating. Nothing in this movie seemed to play out naturally. as if one were watching people in real life, instead it was done in a heavy-handed and shallow manner.

I share the same opinion regarding Underworld as the previous comment.

I sat through the 1.5 hours of this movie wondering what this story was all about and more importantly why the author and/or director had made certain decisions for the plot. On the whole I found the movie to be unbalanced, consisting of strange sub-plots which (IMHO) actually had nothing to do with the movie. Furthermore, when writing a thriller I'd say you want your viewers to wonder about the story and not about the way the story is filmed...

If there was a list to mark the worst movies in history (actually there is on this page), I think Underworld could probably top that list. Given, Denis Leary put on a great job, shooting people and making wisecracks, the movie had no direction and I don't even think the director knew what the hell to do with it. This script belongs in a wastebasket. When one man makes your movie somewhat (remember I said somewhat) watchable.....there's problems.

GRADE: F

I picked up this movie for a few dollars at a local discount store in town. It advertised Denis Leary & Joe Mantegna, plus the box promised "In the style of The Usual Suspects and Reservoir Dogs". I bought it and threw it on my DVD shelf, not really thinking about it. But last night I was in the mood for some crime, so I threw it in.

I really don't know what to say. The film just kind of falls flat with a whole lot of unnecessary dialogue. I think they were trying to go for a Tarantino thing by having incredibly long scenes of Leary explaining where he wants his money to go or the beauty of Rodgers and Hammerstein, but while somewhat humorous in the end it just seems like padding. That's not to say Leary makes it boring, quite the opposite. Leary is well known for his tirades. And for what he has to work with, he actually keeps the long dialogue bits somewhat watchable.

Joe Mantegna does his best, but his role just isn't very well written. He's mostly there to be a quiet straight-man for Leary's insane ramblings. When given a chance he has shining moments, but those are few and far between.

But as for the rest of the film, it just kind of falls flat without any fanfare. The script is too long and kind of confusing, if only for the fact that major plot points are surrounded by stilted dialogue chunks so you can't really pay attention to grab hear them. Editing is very by the book, however there's a few aesthetically pleasing moments of lighting and direction that might surprise you.

All in all, if you're a strong fan of either Leary or the modern crime genre, it's worth a look for only it's hour and a half run time. But if you have something better or just not in the mood, this film isn't going to turn any heads.