The movie had some good ideas and it also had some hints of a good movie in it but overall it isn't really anything too special or worth watching.
It obviously isn't a terrible movie but it still does plenty wrong. The one foremost bad and annoying aspect is that its story is relying on a series of coincidences but the movie expects its viewers to go along with it and we are supposed to actually believe that the series of unlikely events was all planned out and executed to perfection, by one of the movie its characters, Needless to say I didn't buy into it and it was something that actually became worse and more distracting from the movie as the plot thickened and started to head towards its ending. Some needless plot-developments and characters started to emerge, which takes away some of the credibility and fun of the movie.
It's one of those Southern type of thrillers, with some noir touches to its story and characters but done in a mostly comical and entertaining style. It somewhat works well for the first part of the movie, in the sense that the movie is a pretty entertaining and interesting one to watch but at the same time it became obvious very early on already how lacking its script actually was.
Thing about it is that it throws you right into the action. There is no time to setup or establish certain things and characters and it simply lets its story and characters develop as the movie goes along. I'm just not always a too big fan of this type of approach and storytelling. It often comes across as a form of lazy writing, in my opinion. Besides, it's a movie that for most part is set at one location, with only a handful of characters involved. This also means that it heavily relies on its dialog, which however never is anything too impressive or memorable. It's supposed to be one of the things were the movie draws some of its entertainment from but it just isn't quite solid or witty enough to ever work out well enough.
But part of this could also be blamed on the actors though. Sure, the movie stars Val Kilmer and Ray Liotta in it but they play some small parts really. These type of movies often can afford some big name actors but not for any of its lead roles, or else it also clearly would have been a high profile movie, with a bigger budget and some more notoriety behind it. No, the movie instead has Gina Gershon and Kelli Giddish in it as the two main leads. And I like Gina Gershon but only in small doses though. She has a great screen presence but clearly just isn't the best actress around. She is the type of actress who is better off playing supporting- and less demanding type of roles.
There are worse movies to watch but don't expect anything too special or outstanding from this movie.
5/10
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