The Heavy

I had high hopes for this movie. The plot was a man out of jail working as a debt collector for a local business who was asked to do one last job, in order to get out of it all!! then you have his brother Christian (played by an awful Adrian Paul from the Highlander TV series) who was responsible for putting him in prison who wants to make amends for what happened. When i say "make amends" it certainly doesn't pan out in that way. More on this character later.

Gary Stretch who plays the lead character Mitchell Mason, has a good on-screen presence, but he is not a leading man. He is surrounded by some heavyweights and some seriously bad "lightweights" that actually make him look like Robert De Niro at times (no offence Bob). He tries his best but even Vinnie Jones as the corrupt cop makes him look like a cardboard cut-out as he hams up the "bad cop" role like a spit-roasted pig.

Christopher Lee and Jean Marsh are on show (yet i can't see what possessed them to want to be part of this?) play the parents and some of their scenes are so painful to watch as they are put in scenes with such awful acting that you feel embarrassed for them!

Stephen Rea does his best as an upper class bad guy but you still cringe watching the drivel script he has to deal with. Then you have Sadie Frost as a local Bar Owner (i'm not sure what this part of the film's purpose was, as it was pointless).

Then you have the worst acting I have seen in a long time. Hang on, 2nd worst!

Adrian Paul who plays Mitchell's brother Christian, simply CANNOT act, and that is an understatement. I have seen dead people show more emotion and talent than this guy. I think the director actually did him a favour in hiring the actress to play his wife as she is even worse, and that must have been tough. The acting by these 2 characters would've been perfect in an Olaf Ittenbach horror movie. Yes, its that bad!!

The storyline is all over the place as it tries to be cool and modern by going back and forth in the timelines. I think the film would have worked better if they had just done it from first date to last. I think new directors must think this works in gangster style movies but in this one it fails.

On a plus point, the scenes with Shannyn Sossamon (Claire) are the high points of the film. If only they had put more into this than they did, it could've actually been a good film. There is definitely a chemistry there between the 2 characters and they should have focused on this a lot more. I would say Shannyn's performance is one of the better ones overall.

The last 20-30 minutes of this film are actually not bad, if you can endure the first 70 minutes. But don't expect anything special with this film. You won't get it!! Best thing to do? go and dig out Going Off Big Time. Similar film but better acting, script, plot, etc.

STOP casting Vincent Jones as a violent intimidating "gangster" in films. He has become an absolute caricature of himself. It's now beyond a joke.

With a new TV for Christmas and having viewed most of the new titles out there, I was looking for something new and visually pleasing with some potential action to spice it up. After reading terrible reviews almost across the board for this movie, I came across one review that said it was a good action movie to just sit back and enjoy and that the story wasn't terrible...the reviewer must have been thinking of another movie. I was looking forward to at least some quality acting based on the cast, but it was one corny line and terrible camera angle after the other. The action was extremely limited which made the long stretches of poor story and character development even more unbearable. When the action did show up, it was quick and made even worse by the cheesy matrix style(camera following slow motion bullets with trails) it was edited with. Avoid this one if you value 2 hours of your life that you could be doing something much more productive with. I felt cheated in the end.

One trend in movies I am not a huge fan of is the antihero who talks very, very little and shows nearly no emotion. It might work occasionally, but too many films create guys who seem this way. This is THE major reason I did not enjoy "The Heavey", as Boots Mason (Gary Stretch) barely talks and his face is like stone. This gets VERY old, very quickly.

Boots is a thoroughly disgusting, violent and remorseless guy. When bad things happen in his life, he blames others instead of looking at himself. So, when he learns his brother is dying and needs bone marrow, Boots refuses, as the brother didn't do anything to stop him going to prison...though Boots was sent there because he killed someone. Much of the early portions of the movie consist of him beating up folks for loan sharks and killing people. Later, the film gets even nastier and there's apparently a contract out on him and his brother. Why? I really didn't care.

You really have to like seeing violence to get into the film. There is a scene where a guy is chopping off fingers...and you wonder why they show as much as they did. Mind you it could have been worse...but for the average viewer it's more than bad enough.

Overall, a film which I didn't enjoy because of the monotone and unlikable character. I also felt that the plot occasionally made no sense (such as why the woman who Boots is holding hostage HELPS him...and none of her actions made any sense). Not a film I'd recommend.

This is one of those movies you really hope will be good and with a reasonable cast, should have been, i was looking forward to watching it but with a newborn son, struggled to find the time.. when i did find the time it was wasted on one of the worst films i have seen for a while (and i have seen Dear John). I thought that maybe this was one of those movies that might have had a great original script that was then bastardized by rewrites and a different directorial view, but then noticed it was written and directed by the same guy Marcus Warren, so assume he must have been happy with it, Gary Stretch who was promising in Dead Man Shoes, never seemed to go anywhere with his character who seemed to have the morals of a saint one minute and Bill Sykes the next. I have enjoyed some of the Vinnie Jones movies i have seen but always felt that he was being carried by the other cast members.. in this, he does the carrying and did what he could with the terrible dialogue, i should have known as soon as i saw idiot boy Lee Ryan in this sorry excuse of a film, maybe he is a friend of Marcus Warren who must have great friends to get this dross made in the first place!