Mmmm, very weird - but watchable

Rating: 8/10 (26 June 2005)

This is good. It's tough to believe some of the actors never met each other even though their in scenes together.
Right, we'll talk about the cast 1st. Benicio Del Toro - wasted. Could have made so much more of this guy. I liked the scenes where he's "dead", their very surreal. Bruce Willis - very good, comes across a bit too "Die Hard" in certain scenes (I think the director should have told him to act, not pretend to be in another Die Hard Film). I still found escaping from the noose a bit difficult to believe though. Nick Stahl - Damn, I had to look up to see where I remembered him from - Terminator 3! He was pretty average, nothing to write home about. Even as the Yellow Guy he was difficult to watch. Micheal Madsen - I figure he was doing this for Quentin Tarentino as he barely appears at all, and the scenes he IS in he loses to Bruce Willis every time. Michael Clarke Duncan - I will apologize for mistaking this guy for Ving Rhames every time I see him. I think he played his role well but didn't really have very much to do in the film at all. Mickey Rourke - unrecognizable but brilliant. Took this role and ran with it, totally made it his. Sheer bliss to watch every frame he's in. Rutger Hauer - hardly appears but makes nothing of his role. I think it's time he quit the business, he seems to have lost his edge. Elijah Wood - badly cast, totally unable to play a psycho killer. And I still keep thinking he's damn Tobey Macguire from Spiderman, that I WON'T apologize for. Clive Owen - OK, 1stly I'd better make it very clear I AM actually related to Clive (he's my step-cousin) but I won't let that relationship cloud my judgment. This role is excellent, and Clive acts his damn socks and shoes off. I think this kind of role shows he CAN be the next James Bond if they wish to choose him (please do, I really want to be related to James Bond!) Clive doesn't have be American to prove himself as he shows here, he does the hard character acting, the gritty tension, the love interest, the slightly bad and mad to know talking to a corpse person. He covers the whole board and not once did I doubt him. I was shouting internally "NO!" when the tar just seemed to happily wash off him in the rain though.
Right, the female cast. Apart from Rosario Dawson, the women were generally rubbish. Rosario as Gail was excellent, a very tough yet street savvy lady, able to hold her own in any situation. I don't really know Jessica Alba or Brittany Murphy (whose voice sounded familiar then I found out she was Luanne in King of the Hill.) and quite frankly from their performances in this film I don't want to know any more about them.
The film is weird, it's more like watching cut scenes from a computer game, It reminded me a lot of Max Payne and XIII. If you like film noir, or comic book style films then I think you will enjoy this. I'd say to the comic book crowd hold off for the DVD which is bound to have boat loads of extras. Oh, and can someone cast the girl playing Miho in a bigger role very soon. She cast one of the rays of hope into an otherwise (apart from Rosario Dawson) bloody awful female cast. Not everyone is going to like this film, some people may not even be able to sit in the cinema through the whole film, they might get bored. Wait for the DVD then and watch the whole thing, it IS worth the effort. I didn't really understand the sequence at the end with the girl and Doctor in the elevator but maybe I wasn't supposed to.
The film certainly has too many traces of Quentin Tarentino's director style and they don't improve the film or make it any more watchable. Oh, and Quentin? There are more actors than Madsen and Willis about you know, try casting some new faces we don't know.