Styx

I'm watching this movie right now and...wait, hold on...Okay, so I'm not watching the movie anymore. What does that tell you?

Somebody should have told the camera guy to STOP MOVING SO MUCH! My sister made better movies when she was eight and decided to tape herself dancing.

Good actors acting badly, loose plot, annoying camera work, and sub-par directing. A real hoot.

Okay, this isn't going to win any awards. However, it's not a bad piece of popcorn entertainment as long as you can ignore some glaring continuity errors and clunky dialogue. The lead performances are unusually strong Bryan Brown plays it just right, MacFadyen does a great scumbag impression while Weller adds gravitas to an unoriginal character. I hadn't seen Weller in anything for a few years and he looks very good for his age, the verbal sparring between Brown and himself are one of the highlights. In many ways, it reminded me of the John Flynn movies of the Eighties full of tough-talking, testosterone blokes, good action and risible dialogue.

I admit I started from a false assumption with this film, I thought the story had promise and the leads, especially Weller and Brown would make it enjoyable. Wrong! Every element of the films production comes off as being second rate. Weller and Brown, who are not done any favors by their choice of material, struggle at first, before giving in to complete disinterest. The plot is basic, crims double cross one another for diamonds. This film seems to be double crossing just to fill the ninety or so minutes.The twists and turns are nothing new, predictability renders them a complete yawn. Save your money and put this one back on the shelf.

Nelson (Peter Weller), Mike (Angus Macfadyen), and Art (Bryan Brown) are part of a crew. They do an armed bank robbery. It doesn't go exactly right and a guard is killed. They are about to kill the incompetent drug-addicted gun hire when he shoots first. They crash and Art is injured. Afterward, Nelson tries to move on with a normal life. Mike gets into trouble over gambling debts and Nelson is pulled back into doing one last job.

This starts with a promising action section. It's inferior cinematically and is more fitting for a TV movie. There is still an explosion, a car chase, and some hope. It is soon obvious that it's not good enough. The action looks more like 80's TV. It's a lot of slow motion and bad dying. These are solid actors. I'm left with the conclusion that director Alex Wright and his South African crew are up to the task of making top rate movies.

This is the worst film I have ever had the misfortune to sit through. Painful as it was I managed to get to the end, but many of the people I watched it with didn't. I am surprised at this films high rating, I gave it no more than 1!