A drug heist gone bad turns into the longest Mexican standoff in movie history, which serves as backdrop for an inter-character psychodrama.
The strong back-story is told through flashbacks and a progressive repetition of a traumatic shootout scene, which is used to establish two of the moderately well fleshed out main characters but leaves the balance of the cast notably lacking in character development.
Forest Whitaker's command of his scenes dominate the movie. By contrast, Bruce Willis's portrayal of his thinly developed character is a bit underplayed—not the best movie of either of these greats by far.
Malin Akerman however, really puts a feather in her cap for this one. Her character "Tes," ain't Lauri Jupiter. This film serves to demonstrate how wide this lady's range is by comparison to her early works on screen.
The balance of the cast, each of notable talent, were sadly not given the opportunity to demonstrate the full extent of their skills. I was particularly disappointed with the amount of material Shea Whiggham was given to work with. For now I suppose, we'll have to suffice with Boardwalk Empire to see the range of this actor.
The score is worthy of note, with a single exception—the plug for Bruce Willis's 1980's singing debut was unforgivable and weakened the strength of both the score and the movie overall.
Overall though, in spite of the flaws, this movie is worth watching. You shouldn't walk away feeling that you've lost 90 minutes of your life that you'll never get back, and it's a better film than a lot of what I've seen coming out of Hollywood this year.
The strong back-story is told through flashbacks and a progressive repetition of a traumatic shootout scene, which is used to establish two of the moderately well fleshed out main characters but leaves the balance of the cast notably lacking in character development.
Forest Whitaker's command of his scenes dominate the movie. By contrast, Bruce Willis's portrayal of his thinly developed character is a bit underplayed—not the best movie of either of these greats by far.
Malin Akerman however, really puts a feather in her cap for this one. Her character "Tes," ain't Lauri Jupiter. This film serves to demonstrate how wide this lady's range is by comparison to her early works on screen.
The balance of the cast, each of notable talent, were sadly not given the opportunity to demonstrate the full extent of their skills. I was particularly disappointed with the amount of material Shea Whiggham was given to work with. For now I suppose, we'll have to suffice with Boardwalk Empire to see the range of this actor.
The score is worthy of note, with a single exception—the plug for Bruce Willis's 1980's singing debut was unforgivable and weakened the strength of both the score and the movie overall.
Overall though, in spite of the flaws, this movie is worth watching. You shouldn't walk away feeling that you've lost 90 minutes of your life that you'll never get back, and it's a better film than a lot of what I've seen coming out of Hollywood this year.