I was looking forward to this film since I saw the trailer back in November for a few reasons. One, the cast looked brilliant as it brought in veterans of past gangster movies like Andy Garcia and Ray Liotta and mixed them in with some younger, fresher, hipper faces like Ryan Reynolds and Alicia Keyes. The other was that it looked like it could be a film that could match the likes of Pulp Fiction and Lock, Stock.
However that turned out to be the films problem. It was a bit too Tarantino and Guy Ritchie and while the film was pretty original, I couldn't help but think I was watching an American version of Lock, Stock with more guns. Even with all those guns though, there ended up not being a whole lot of action after all even though there is a massive body count.
I have a few other complaints that I'll just keep brief - it all seemed to get a bit too serious at the end and didn't seem to suit the tone for the rest of the film. Ben Affleck had far too little a role in it for being billed as the leading man (however his demise came as a shock. The whole thing seemed a bit pointless when the ending came about.
Good points however - Ryan Reynolds really surprised me as he turned out to be the real leading man. Having only really seen him in comedy roles before, he was entirely convincing in his role here and cracked no jokes at all. Thumbs up to him. Alicia Keyes was also great for this being her first acting role and looked absolutely incredible. The action (even though there probably wasn't enough for a film of it's kind) was pretty spectacular while it lasted. There are also a lot of scenes with some pretty sharp humour especially with the three Nazis.
All in all this is a pretty decent movie, not a classic by any means but worth seeing for sure.
However that turned out to be the films problem. It was a bit too Tarantino and Guy Ritchie and while the film was pretty original, I couldn't help but think I was watching an American version of Lock, Stock with more guns. Even with all those guns though, there ended up not being a whole lot of action after all even though there is a massive body count.
I have a few other complaints that I'll just keep brief - it all seemed to get a bit too serious at the end and didn't seem to suit the tone for the rest of the film. Ben Affleck had far too little a role in it for being billed as the leading man (however his demise came as a shock. The whole thing seemed a bit pointless when the ending came about.
Good points however - Ryan Reynolds really surprised me as he turned out to be the real leading man. Having only really seen him in comedy roles before, he was entirely convincing in his role here and cracked no jokes at all. Thumbs up to him. Alicia Keyes was also great for this being her first acting role and looked absolutely incredible. The action (even though there probably wasn't enough for a film of it's kind) was pretty spectacular while it lasted. There are also a lot of scenes with some pretty sharp humour especially with the three Nazis.
All in all this is a pretty decent movie, not a classic by any means but worth seeing for sure.