A Good Night to Die

Ronnie (Gary Stretch) befriends jittery August (Michael Rapaport) and later mentors him to be a hit man. Three years later, August gets into trouble killing the wrong man who turns out to be a made man. Ronnie tries to save August despite the objections of his wife Dana (Robin Givens). He does work for Madison (Debbie Harry) to buy time for August. On the other hand, he's cheating with Ronnie's girlfriend and his ex Paige. Killing couple slash siblings Donnie (Ralph Macchio) and Marie (Ally Sheedy) are working for mobster Guy (Seymour Cassel).

Director Craig Singer is trying way too hard borrowing various styles. He tries to do superfluous funny dialog but it's nowhere as sharp as Tarantino. He uses quick edits, philosophizing, and time flashbacks but it all feels derivative. Sometimes, it gets interesting but the central plot struggles to advance in this meandering flow. Stretch doesn't have enough charisma to lead. Macchio and Sheedy have a great nostalgia factor. Overall, this tries too much and ends up with a bit of a mess.

A Good Night to Die is a down and dirty New York film. It is about a likable hit man named Ronnie, his not so bright protege, August, and an eventful day in their lives.

Michael Rappaport gives the most powerful performance of his career as the dim witted and intense student of the hit man arts. Gary Stretch plays the main character who goes to extreme lengths to protect his protege whom he feels responsible for bringing into their world. I've never heard of Mr. Stretch but I'm sure we all will very soon. He seems to jump off the screen and sit in your lap.

A entirely unrecognizable Ralph Macchio plays a psychotic killer with his partner (you never really know their exact relationship, but whatever it is, it's really weird) played by Ally Sheedy (always a bonus to see Ralph Macchio and Ally Sheedy play a murderous, psychotic duo)

Deborah Harry and Seymour Casell play rival mob bosses but this is more than your standard "the mob is after me" kind of movie.

The movie is filmed mainly in the streets of New York City. You can practically smell the city. One particular rooftop assassination scene really stands out. There was something very disturbing and wrong about how the person was done in.

I highly recommend this movie.

While I was reluctant at first, my friend convinced me to rent this film. This film was one of the best I've seen this year. The acting was fantastic, the story kept me guessing and the directing was tight yet imaginative. This is the kind of filmmaker that I'd like to follow. I rented Craig Singers first film "Animal Room" it was real good but too dark for me.

I also heard about a film called Dead Dogs Lie but have had no luck in finding. read he is working on a horror film and I'll definitely check that out. I recommend this film for anyone who wants to see a true indie classic.

I saw this movie at its premier at the Tribeca film festival. The director was in the theatre so the desire to laugh out loud was quelched, but looking back I'm not quite sure how I managed to contain myself. This was almost a good movie, the dialogue was good, the acting was good...the dialogue was good. The biggest problem was that it had many long, well written, funny scenes that had absolutely nothing to do with the movie. It meandered to the point where I had no idea where the film was going, and had already stopped caring. At one point the film stops in the middle of a graphic action scene to do a long, creepy claymation sequence that came completely out of left field. It wasn't a bad scene, it just didn't make any sense in context. There was definitely some talented people involved in making this movie, to bad that doesn't equal a good movie.

Much like Pulp Fiction, Singer pulls out great performances from the most unlikely actors (Ralph Macchio & Ally Sheedy in particular). If enough people see the film, it could revive their careers.

Visually intriguing, yet somewhat thin on plot is a way to describe the film. But I found it riveting the first time through.

For people complaining about never seeing anything different, that it's always the same old junk, plot lines, scene set-ups, etc. --- this is a movie to see. If nothing else, it is out of the ordinary.

Without revealing the end, I'd be curious to see what others thought of the end in terms of who ordered which hits? (Be glad to hear from you via e-mail @ howardeber@aol.com).

No it's not a great one, but it is an interesting work from a director who clearly has something to say, and has an unusual way of saying it. Hopefully, we'll be seeing his name on more films in the future. I, for one at least, will be on the lookout for his work.