Mediocre

Rating: 4/10 (13 December 2005)

This is a very uneven film- essentially it has three story segments. One features nearly indestrucible man-mountain Marv (brilliantly played by Mickey Rourke) on a mission of vengeance, one features Bruce Willis in a boring performance and one apparently features Clive Owen, though you would be hard pressed to notice him- as his performance simply fades away, absorbed into the general headache of it all. The problem is that on paper, the stories work well. But when you transpose them onto film, the sickening violence and blatant misogyny take their toll on the viewer. The film really is all style over substance. There is one good segment- Mickey Rourke's Marv is both cynically funny and engaging, his ability to escape death entertaining and this segment features cameos from Elijah Wood and Rutger Hauer. My advice would be to watch Rourke's segment and then stop. Life is to short and too precious to spend it watching a dreary succession of violent stabbings and shootings.