I'm caught in a trap, I can't go on
Junglies | Morrisville, NC United States | 10/22/2008
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Very gritty thriller, with very chauvanistic, almost anti-women attitudes on display. It trawls the depths of depravity and inhumanity in an area where drugs and despair are common place and where it is hard to tell the good guys from the bad.
The movie stinks of corruption and dishonesty. In a way it is the wild west allover again where the colour of a person's skin does not matter where drugs, prostitution and death hold sway.
I am reminded of the King of New York and New Jack City but this film does not come close to either. It is disturbing on several levels especially as one contemplates the movie after watching it. There is an attempt to make the film a hoodunit but close following of the plot leads the serious viewer to guilty party identification relatively quickly. Darryl Hannah does not do the part justice really as it does not call for much and she is heavily over-qualified.
I find the self-examining narration superfluous and depressing, leaving this reviewer wondering why anyone watching would need it.
This has the germs of a good idea in it but the film does not allow them to grow into the movie it ought to be."
Not Michael Madsen's Best
J. Kaye | 01/01/2009
(1 out of 5 stars)
"Detective Walker, played by Michael Madsen and the reason I was watching the movie, plays a cop who is close to hitting bottom. By the end of the movie, he will be there. As a viewer, I wanted to like Walker, wanted to believe in him, but he has sex with hookers and drinks himself unconscious.
When heroin is missing after a drug bust goes awry, the cops involved start getting killed and Walker has no idea who is behind the thief. The movie is very dark, which I love and has the flavorings of realism, but there is something seriously lacking. One could be the lack of enthusiasm coming from the actors, starting with Madsen. He's one of my favorites, but not in this film."