Archive
June 2014
Volume 1

all movies are graded out of four stars ()

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Beyond the Trophy Movie: BUY THE: Poster! | DVD! | Blu-ray! The synopsis on the box of writer/director Daniel J. Gillin's crime drama reads as such: "Two rival gangs in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, led by Gino and Cole, are vying for control. Danny, an LAPD undercover police detective, goes deep into gangland to infiltrate one gang to bring down both. Along the way, he becomes entangled with the beautiful and seductive Angela, whose relationship with her husband Jake and mob leader Gino makes her the focal point of an intoxicating romantic equation--with deadly consequences. Her dream is to escape the wrath of evil abusive men, and find the love she never knew." It sounds like a basic and straightforward cops-and-mobsters set-up, especially in the no-budget direct-to-DVD realm, but Gillin, in an apparent attempt to lend it some sort of distinctive style has rendered the story almost completely incomprehensible. It's all too fitting that Gillin overuses a playing card/card table effect to transition between scenes as too many characters enter and (often abruptly) exit the picture, moments and plot points not so much leading into others than randomly shuffling to others (the romantic angle pumped up by that official synopsis is virtually nonexistent) with usually no connective tissue aside from Michael Madsen's snarky voiceover narration as Cole. That narration, not the unimpressive performances that range from disinterested (from the veterans in the cast, such as Madsen, Eric Roberts, and Tiny Lister) to inept (from just about anyone else, especially leads Michael Masini as Danny and Stephen Cloud as another cop) or the sloppy direction, probably best exemplifies what a mess the film is. Between overexplaining what is plainly obvious, like stating that a group of characters went to meet another as we see them have the meeting; to attempting to identify and explain characters and fill in the myriad holes and leaps in the storyline, the voiceover actually further confuses the picture rather than clarifying it. One thing is clear, though--this trophy is a booby prize. The sole supplement on the DVD is a trailer for the film (which, like the official synopsis, makes the film look fairly straightforward and at the very least coherent) and the usual reel of trailers fo a few other releases. Specifications: 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen; English 5.1 Surround; English closed captioning. (Arc Entertainment)

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