A very, very disappointing movie

Rating: 1/10 (28 March 2005)

I looked forward to seeing this movie because of Washington's great performances in most of his other works. However, my eagerness was dampened early on, not so much by the performances, but by the visual component. This movie made almost incessant use of special effect zoom-ins and -outs. Visually the story was buried in this. I was quickly irritated by this from the outset, and felt like changing DVDs. But because I had just plunked down hard cash for it, I endured it a little longer. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and didn't watch the rest. They used effects like this in Enemy of the State, but with great restraint, mostly when they showed the satellite zooming in on two main characters as they tracked them. But here it was overburdening. This factor alone made it, in my mind, one of the worst films I've ever seen. As for the acting, Washington, with his clean-cut looks and ways, just wasn't convincing as a drunk. His overall performance was less than stellar as well, as was, I felt, everyone else's. For me, a clear Thumbs Down! I'm only surprised at how many IMDb respondents actually thought highly of this trash. This is artistic cinema?