This is pretty much a noir revenge story, with stone loner Roy Egan(the great Harvey Keitel) navigating the high and low of seedy LA, wending his way through dive bars, upscale LA law firms, and enduring beat downs from Asian and black gangs while pursuing THE BIG PAYBACK, son. As JB, the godfather of soul might say, "His patience thin, he want revenge." Harvey reluctantly joins a heist crew led by little brother Hutton that will knock off high-end jewelry store connected to the Russian mob. The brutally executed caper is successful, but then Skip Kovic (Dorff) goes turncoat, cancels some of the crew, including little brother, and now Harvey is out for blood.
The big man looks good, obviously still hitting the weights, with some Risky Business shades and tieless Man in the Arrow shirt look. Okay, so he is in his late 50's, with a bit of a gut, and he walks with a little swayback. But, you know what, this is the man who pulled off "Fingers" son, and he would dominate the screen even if he walked around LA reading from the Congressional registry. Best scene: In his small hotel room after the post-robbery bloodbath, Harvey cuts through any Hamlet-style vacillation by pounding a card table with escalating fury, overturning it, sending out an unholy moan, and then setting out to kick some serious A. Only Harvey could turn a wordless moan and the act of overturning a card table into a statement of existential despair. Second best: when the big man gives a slimy bartender a beat down. About this second scene: post-robbery, Harvey goes to a hoodlum hangout, and tries to bribe the bartender for the whereabouts of Skip Kovic (Dorff). The bartender, who we know is in the know, tells Harvey to f- off, and Harvey steps back, squints, and waits, cigarette dangling. That goof with his silly goatee starts scrambling forward from the bar. Harvey administers a serious beat-down, KEEPING HIS CIGARETTE IN HIS MOUTH THE WHOLE TIME. Oh, and he picks up a gun for good measure. Now that is MOVIE MAKING, son. Irvin could have 86'd Eliot Gould and Michael Jai White, and the other Hollywood B-types trying to give the movie some bogus street cred. I buy Eliot Gould as a mobster as easily as I can buy a slurpee using a $3bill earned from my paper route on Mars. More of the stupendously sexy Famke Jannsen. And a nice cameo with Lucy Liu as a stripper with a SM motif. If Irvin was trying to channel the spirit of Michael Mann, he might have added more dialogue and made the Dorff character more complex. Still, I'll be here when City of 2 (Electric Boogaloo) comes out.
The big man looks good, obviously still hitting the weights, with some Risky Business shades and tieless Man in the Arrow shirt look. Okay, so he is in his late 50's, with a bit of a gut, and he walks with a little swayback. But, you know what, this is the man who pulled off "Fingers" son, and he would dominate the screen even if he walked around LA reading from the Congressional registry. Best scene: In his small hotel room after the post-robbery bloodbath, Harvey cuts through any Hamlet-style vacillation by pounding a card table with escalating fury, overturning it, sending out an unholy moan, and then setting out to kick some serious A. Only Harvey could turn a wordless moan and the act of overturning a card table into a statement of existential despair. Second best: when the big man gives a slimy bartender a beat down. About this second scene: post-robbery, Harvey goes to a hoodlum hangout, and tries to bribe the bartender for the whereabouts of Skip Kovic (Dorff). The bartender, who we know is in the know, tells Harvey to f- off, and Harvey steps back, squints, and waits, cigarette dangling. That goof with his silly goatee starts scrambling forward from the bar. Harvey administers a serious beat-down, KEEPING HIS CIGARETTE IN HIS MOUTH THE WHOLE TIME. Oh, and he picks up a gun for good measure. Now that is MOVIE MAKING, son. Irvin could have 86'd Eliot Gould and Michael Jai White, and the other Hollywood B-types trying to give the movie some bogus street cred. I buy Eliot Gould as a mobster as easily as I can buy a slurpee using a $3bill earned from my paper route on Mars. More of the stupendously sexy Famke Jannsen. And a nice cameo with Lucy Liu as a stripper with a SM motif. If Irvin was trying to channel the spirit of Michael Mann, he might have added more dialogue and made the Dorff character more complex. Still, I'll be here when City of 2 (Electric Boogaloo) comes out.