Did the Phoenix Police Department sue the makers of this film for defamation? They should have.
Where is the entertainment value in this story? Corrupt cops with puerile senses of humour, driven by greed, poor decisions and a fixation on gambling.
The observation was once made that people go to the movies not so much to see things, but to feel things.
We can identify with characters on the wrong side of the law if they have some appeal. Look at "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "The Asphalt Jungle", "The Grifters" and any number of others. But to get us in they need a lightness of touch or characters with some charisma. Who has charisma in this movie?
"Phoenix" misses none of the clichés of the second-rate bad-cop movie. We have bookies and gangsters that seem like characters out of a "Batman" movie, we get inevitable pole dancers, inevitable shootouts, and finally, the twist that everyone, but everyone in the story is corrupt.
The team of detectives, Harry Collins, Mike Henshaw and James Nutter played by Ray Liotta, Anthony LaPaglia and Daniel Baldwin, decide to rob a wealthy pimp/loan shark. They reveal themselves to be totally inept robbers, but not in a fun way. There seems little point to their incompetence other than that the filmmakers didn't know how to sustain a consistent mood. Harry Collin's virtual flip of the coin in making every decision is stretched to the max.
Ray Liotta has been in better things, even as a crooked cop. For Anthony LaPaglia, this was a warm-up for his bad cop in "The Salton Sea", however that was superior in every way. Angelica Huston has so little to do it's as though the filmmakers didn't know what to do with her.
I feel the themes in "Phoenix" have been handled with greater skill elsewhere. The main character here seems a loser in the worst sense of the word; any redeeming traits he has appear to have been grafted on to try and redeem the movie.
Where is the entertainment value in this story? Corrupt cops with puerile senses of humour, driven by greed, poor decisions and a fixation on gambling.
The observation was once made that people go to the movies not so much to see things, but to feel things.
We can identify with characters on the wrong side of the law if they have some appeal. Look at "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "The Asphalt Jungle", "The Grifters" and any number of others. But to get us in they need a lightness of touch or characters with some charisma. Who has charisma in this movie?
"Phoenix" misses none of the clichés of the second-rate bad-cop movie. We have bookies and gangsters that seem like characters out of a "Batman" movie, we get inevitable pole dancers, inevitable shootouts, and finally, the twist that everyone, but everyone in the story is corrupt.
The team of detectives, Harry Collins, Mike Henshaw and James Nutter played by Ray Liotta, Anthony LaPaglia and Daniel Baldwin, decide to rob a wealthy pimp/loan shark. They reveal themselves to be totally inept robbers, but not in a fun way. There seems little point to their incompetence other than that the filmmakers didn't know how to sustain a consistent mood. Harry Collin's virtual flip of the coin in making every decision is stretched to the max.
Ray Liotta has been in better things, even as a crooked cop. For Anthony LaPaglia, this was a warm-up for his bad cop in "The Salton Sea", however that was superior in every way. Angelica Huston has so little to do it's as though the filmmakers didn't know what to do with her.
I feel the themes in "Phoenix" have been handled with greater skill elsewhere. The main character here seems a loser in the worst sense of the word; any redeeming traits he has appear to have been grafted on to try and redeem the movie.