Great acting, Tarentino-esque violence

Rating: 8/10 (8 April 2002)

Denzel Washington was SO good in this. Fierce, nasty, and you could question how much of a soul he actually possessed. I could even tolerate Ethan Hawke whom I have always thought of as pretty "light-weight", but in this movie he was able to put some meat into his character. This film is violent and nasty and there aren't a lot of people in the flick that I would consider "good and decent". Several scenes were knife-edged (or gun-barrel) violent, reminiscent of "Reservoir Dogs". At least one "coincidence", as I have seen mentioned in other reviews, was quite annoying. Knowing that Washington's character wasn't aware of this coincidence made me think even less of his character, basically he was watching out for himself, only himself and didn't give a thought to anyone else or their lives. Fascinating, violent and recommended.