The cover looked pretty good with one of my preferred action guy, Jason Statham, shooting a gun. Snipes and Phillippe have head shots faded out in the background. I'm glad I took the chance. My rating: $7.00 (1.-9.) for an action DVD.
The beginning is kinda confusing. The cops chase a guy up a bridge where they corner him, gun to a hostages head. Next come the opening credits where headlines proclaim the hostage's horrible death, bad boy cop gets suspended. Others are fired.
Opening scene is some cops coming to get Det. Conners (Statham) to handle another hostage situation at a bank with tons of hostages. The robbers asked specifically for him. He's removed from suspension going against the grain of fellow detectives. Wesley Snipes is one of the bank robbers. He's got that smarta-- attitude like in most of his other movies along with a razor wit that we love so much.
The standoff goes bad and the bad guys get away without taking anything from the bank. They blow up some safety deposit boxes but don't take anything there either. The investigation begins. Like lighting a long wick to a stick of dynamite, Statham and his new partner, Shane Dekker (Phillippe), uncover clues and ferret out the bad guys. Dekker is fairly new but comes from a family of law enforcement. He's very intelligent. The script gives him some credibility since, with Phillippe's baby face, it's often hard to take him seriously. Unfortunately, his range of facial emotions is still minimal -- a comedian he isn't.
The fun part of this film is that every clue takes them and us in a new direction. Think you've got it figured out? Maybe, but can you figure out how they're gonna pull it off if you're right? There's this great street chase (yep, I like those car chases-- remember 'Vantage Point') with Phillippe on a motorcycle and the bad guy in this huge truck. Snipes' role is mostly a cameo. He makes a few threatening phone calls and unveils himself in the end only. Actress Justine Waddell plays Detective Teddy Galloway who supports Statham, her former partner and lover. Waddell does an OK job when she's got some lines; otherwise, she pales out with all these other strong personalities on screen.
Hint: There's a whole lot of literature in the world about chaos theory. One of them is where they get the idea for the events in this film.
Thirty-six year-old writer/director, Tony Giglio, started in assistant and crew jobs during the 90's and has only moved up to screenwriting and directing since 1999. In the theaters, this movie might seem more cheesy. On DVD, it's pretty high quality action and worth a rental. The run time is about 1 hour 45 minutes. I'd think the rating would be "R" but couldn't find it right off. For action, I can't recommend anything else better for now--- but I'm still out there watching!!