overrated is an understatement

Rating: 2/10 (31 July 2007)

This is one of those films that comes along that everyone seems to get but you. Al Pacino's character is supposed to be a sort of antihero, and yet i felt relief when that ridiculous Schwartzenegger wannabe shot him in the back at the film's climax. The whole film reeks of a cheesy over the top acting and really bad special effects. I laughed when hector fell through the window onto a concrete colored pillow, when Tony tried to hide his face from the squirt bottle of blood being squeezed at him as his friend was being sawed to pieces, and not to mention Brian DePalma's "cameo" during the club assassination attempt. DePalma always soaks his movie in this dark creepiness, which worked for movies like Carrie, but feels woefully out of place here. The film suffers from bad pacing as well, the scene where he goes home to meet his mother could have been cut by ten minutes. The only interesting things i can say about this movie is that DePalma's camera-work is generally excellent (though this is one of his lesser films), but it's his storytelling abilities that makes his films suffer. The 80's- soaked atmosphere doesn't help either. I am baffled by this film's popularity, and hope that true movie buffs can see through the hype and see it for what it is: Overrated.