One Eyed King

Yes, the cast and the movie are damn good. I just watched it a few days ago, not expecting much, but I was pretty surprised. Interesting engrossing story, great acting, this is a little cheaply made but well directed and superbly played sleeper, it will get its followers.

NOT as good as STATE OF GRACE, but also not that much worse.

Recently I saw for example the re-make of ASSAULT ON PRECINT 13, which is utterly awful, as worse as it can get.

Compared to junk like this ONE EYED KING is a real treat, something to look out for and certainly enjoy.

I even found it better - because of being more realistic - than the high-speed Marin Scorsese junk "THE DEPARTED", which won Oscars for delivering hardly anything.

Nice little gem, this ONE EYED KING !

Not even worth the price of a rental. This movie stunk, from the acting to the cinematography. I rented this hoping that if was a fraction as good as Goodfellows, it might be worth watching; especially since there aren't many good movies about the Irish mafia.

The narrator started off by stating how notoriously mean these "Westies" were, but they certainly were not anything special in this movie. Yeah, a couple of action scenes with cliché tough talk, but mostly just bad dialog and dancing, riddled with a few fist fights with too much fake blood. Watching William Baldwin try to "act" the tough guy is like watching Lisa Lampanelli act sexy (no offense to Lisa!). Baldwin was just horrible, as was Jim Breuer(Half Baked), was that supposed to be a joke? I could go on, but it would just be waste of time.

I give it a 2/10, just because there are some movies that are worse.

This movie might have been enjoyable if the dialog was intelligible but between the marble mouthed delivery of most of the male cast and the intrusive background noise it was nearly impossible to follow what the characters were saying.

I appreciate the chiaroscuro aspects of the photography but this film takes noir into the heart of darkness. A good part of the action and some critical scenes are shot under the light of the new moon.

When there is no light at all I suppose there's no need for players, sets or crew except for the sound people and we've already dealt with them.

OK, so it's no "State of Grace", so it's no "Departed". Let's suspend the need to compare it to other movies about the Irish mob, or what it's like in urban Irish-American neighborhoods. The story is a little scattered, and it's a little hard to believe that Helen spends so much time resenting Frankie and then just does a complete 360 and wants to be with him. What stands out here is the cast. Armand Assante and Chazz Palminteri, while maybe a little mis-cast, turn in some impressive performances. These actors make you forget they're not really Irish (even though their characters are supposed to be)because they're so good at what they do. William Baldwin certainly shows some versatility, Connie Britton (who you may remember from Brothers McMullen) really makes you believe her heartbreak, and maybe a surprise to some of you is the scene stealing performance from Jim Breuer, as the least tainted member of the "brotherhood" who's girlfriend gets pregnant. He ends up as a hysterical deer-in-the-headlights when confronted by her father and the parish priest.

This movie is at least worth a rental.

For a movie shot on High-Def Video, it's not bad. For a movie shot on HD-DV and with a cast including Chazz Palminteri, Armand Assante and William Baldwin, it ain't that bad. Still, this is far from a great movie. Some scenes are well shot while others look like they shot on Mini-DV tape. The acting is at best, amateur. Then again, the movie flows every time Armand Assante is talking. The best part of the movie was a surprise role played by comedian Jim Breuer. He is total comic relief, still, he is treated like a supporting actor and is only in 1/4 of the movie. Still, his addition to the cast is great. Too long for a movie that is predictable. The narration was not needed and the movie should have ran a little over 90 minutes instead of the 1 hour and 5 minutes. By 90 minutes, half the audience has already given up on wanting to know how the movie ends because the narration gives it away in the start of the movie. Plus, the roof top scene takes away any notion that these two friends are going to remain friends. In ways, the narration tried to be more of a Goodfellas voice over, and failed. An OK film, a step in the good direction for those film makers who want to shoot on HD-DV.