I took a chance with this film after as it advertised itself as a gangland crime drama and Harvey Keitel was part of the cast. No sure guarantee of a classic but I wasn't expecting one. Only a fairly decent film.
Cuba Gooding Jr stars as a "right hand man" to smalltime hoodlum Miguel Ferrer who is caught up in a personal war with Mafia kingpin Harvey Keitel after killing one of his drug dealers. Things get messy when Ferrer's wife is brutally murdered as retaliation which sets a revenge plot for the rest of the film. There's also a side story with Gooding Jr flashing back witnessing his father's murder as a child. It all sounds promising.
However this is not the case. All the way through it was a rather slow-paced bore-fest full of stereotypical "gangster dialogue and clichés" witnessed in other far superior films.
Gooding Jr is wooden, Keitel is wasted although Ferrer does himself justice with his character.
It's not a total bomb, far from it, but rather a great storyline not brought to its potential and that's the frustrating part.
Approach with caution.
Cuba Gooding Jr stars as a "right hand man" to smalltime hoodlum Miguel Ferrer who is caught up in a personal war with Mafia kingpin Harvey Keitel after killing one of his drug dealers. Things get messy when Ferrer's wife is brutally murdered as retaliation which sets a revenge plot for the rest of the film. There's also a side story with Gooding Jr flashing back witnessing his father's murder as a child. It all sounds promising.
However this is not the case. All the way through it was a rather slow-paced bore-fest full of stereotypical "gangster dialogue and clichés" witnessed in other far superior films.
Gooding Jr is wooden, Keitel is wasted although Ferrer does himself justice with his character.
It's not a total bomb, far from it, but rather a great storyline not brought to its potential and that's the frustrating part.
Approach with caution.