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Review:
 Is
the fact that a movie is gratuitous mean that it's bad? Not
necessarily, and not in this case, but it's a particularly sticky
point. This film is so over the top at times that it takes one's
breath away, This is what might be called “violence porn” where
there are so many people blasting away at each other that if you
don't like the stuff all that much, it'll make your head spin.
We first meet Joey Gazelle (Paul Walker) wildly driving down the
street bleeding profusely with a young boy in a bloody shirt
seated next to him. This is a tease. We immediately flash back to
the previous day, where Joey is doing a drug deal.
Suddenly, BANG!!!! a contingent of masked robbers burst in and
begin shooting. But the bad guys are quick and soon they've
managed to kill off the worse guys in a major burst of gunfire
complete with buckets of blood. Then we discover that all the
masked corpses have police badges! Of course!!!! So during the
getaway, our protagonist's boss(Johnny Messner), gives him the
guns and says “get rid of them.
Joey, of course doesn't. That's not very good as his son Nicky
(Alex Neuberger) and best friend Oleg Yugorsky (Cameron Bright)
are playing hockey in the basement and hide when dad hides the
guns in the secret hiding place.
Now Oleg lives next door with his mother(Ivana Milicevic), the
abused doormat, and his evil, evil stepfather Anzor (Karel Roden)
and when he sees a loaded pistol just there for the taking….it's
bullet time!!!! That's right folks, it's the “Matrix” all over
again without the science fiction mumbo jumbo.
The cops come, Joey's wife Teresa (Vera Farmiga) tries to take
care of the situation with Oleg's mom while Oleg flees. The chase
is on!!!!
Now there's the bad guys are after Joey because he's lost the gun,
the worse guys, headed by the disgusting Detective Rydell(Chazz
Palminteri), area after Oleg as well. Now there are all sorts of
twists and turns, some of which are really cool and others of
which are rather lame, but the action keeps on keeping on, and
once or twice it goes over the top so far that belief almost
cannot be suspended, this is where Teresa unaccountably gets to
kill someone, and that's really satisfying. The acting, by the
way, is great throughout.
While some people may find this obscene, others may find this the
most fun they've had in ages. It's violence porn and is as hard an
“R” as you can get. If you like buckets of blood, this is the film
for you. Wow!!!!
Eric Lurio
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