Overall Grade: (F)
This is a classic example that you can fill a movie with as much gunfire and explosive action you want, but if the tone, and story-line direction are as messy as this one, the result will seem like a laughable waste of time.
Not exactly sure what compelled Salma Hayek to take on this role as a woman trapped in an apartment fending of waves of killers sent by her ex-boyfriend and violent mob-boss. Nor am I sure what the tone of this film wanted to be. If ever there was a clear example to prove even I can write a script, this film would be that example.
There was little to no story, and the overall premise was ridiculously unorganized. The action was at times clever and other times it was over the top silly and at times made me feel like giving up and saving my time by hitting the ‘stop’ button. Whatever the intention may have been, the result came across like a cheap ripoff of Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” series mixed with over-stylized violence from films such as “The Man With the Iron Fists”.
Sure there was plenty of gunfire but regardless of the massive amounts of bullets being unleashed from the beginning to the end of this one, it was still the longest 92 minutes of my life. Even the beautiful Salma Hayek quickly became boring to watch as she tried to work her way through a script that was so bad, you could only focus on the glaring holes and idiocracy of the plots direction while the guns were blazing.
The dialogue was elementary at best and regardless of whether that was its intention or not, the more cringe worthy scenes were Hayek and others trying to deliver their horrible lines, and not the endless waves of violence. Which quickly felt like it was over compensating for a lack of… well… really anything else being brought to this project.
After over an hour of pointless gun-play and monumentally implausible scenarios, the third-act closes with a mind numbingly dumb confrontation between two actors who show less than zero chemistry while both grossly over act throughout as if the rehearsal video was accidentally edited into the final cut.
In the end life was lost during this film and it was an hour and a half of mine. If this film can be classed in a small niche genre then I must have missed it, and if Hayek had hopes of this film boosting her action film future, she may need to think again because she wasn’t able to shine with the horrific writing and creative-less direction this film took.