Load of rubbish!!

Fresh and Exciting

Brilliant and touching

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

This is a totally stupid and disgusting and cynical movie. Stupid because the plot is so childishly contrived and derivative you'd have to be a moron to believe it. Disgusting not for the ridiculously over-the-top violence and gore, or Nicholas Cage's terrible acting, but how it insults your intelligence. And derivative because it sets a new standard for use of clichés and crap we've seen a million times before. It is also disgusting that impressionable and ignorant kids might see this movie, which is one big lie about life, about the effects of beating and brutality on its victims, etc. It is pure sadism for the sake of sadism, and there is nothing else in this movie to redeem it. Miller is the ultimate cynical panderer to the lowest taste level. He should be drummed out of the business.

Movies don't get much worse than this. Between Cage in a ludicrous wig or Grenier as a tough guy I don't know which is worse. Unintentionally funny,embarrassing for all involved. Cage is his scenery chewing self, and Grenier as unconvincing as always. There is , however, some eye candy.

Call it a brother love, blue collar descends to crime collar movie. Cusack and Cage obviously slummed to do this. If blue collar life now equals drugs and one or less parents, lets hear it for Hollywood stereotyping. I can see why Cusack maybe had to do this. He isn't seen much anymore. But Cage still seems to be working. The whole reason for this movie, is a big question mark. Is it to feature this new actor Grenier? Who knows? The script tries for Tarentino and fails. The Grenier character, J.P., somehow has unexplained combat skills, even though he just owns a construction company. His business partner has a neck brace on later into the movie, but that is never explained, just inferred. And the brothers get away with what they get away with at the end without, well, any explanation at all. Is it worth the watch? Only if there isn't anything better to watch. Or if you have anything better to do Cage's and Cusack's presence are what no doubt will lead people to watch this. But you will be disappointed if you want to see something up to the level of these stars.

Arsenal (2017) ** (out of 4) JP (Adrian Grenier) is a successful construction owner but his older brother Mikey (Johnathon Schaech) has been a loser most of his life. First there was a failed cocaine deal, which left Mikey beaten up and broken. Then Mikey finds himself kidnapped and being held for ransom. JP decides to go and get his brother back from Eddie King (Nicolas Cage), a notorious gangster.Steven C. Miller's ARSENAL is a mildly entertaining action movie that is one of those films that might be worth watching if you can catch it free on television or perhaps a $1.50 Redbox rental. There are some entertaining things about this movie but at the same time there are some really lame and cheap moments that keep it from being as good as it could have been. The film has gained some publicity for its graphic violence and wild performance from Cage and that almost makes it worth sitting through.The biggest problem is that the film is simply a "B" movie so one should be expecting a quality picture like you'd see in a real theatrical production. The movie has a very cheap feel to it and the screenplay just isn't as good as one would hope. It pretty much follows every generic twist and turn that you might expect and various plot points are on hand here including various issues with the loser brother. As I said, the film tries to stand out with its graphic violence and there are some pretty interesting kill scenes here but the non-stop slow motion just adds more cheapness to the film.The cast, for the most part, are good, although I'd argue that Grenier isn't quite strong enough to really carry the picture. The screenplay didn't do his character much justice either to be fair. I did think Schaech was good in the role of the loser brother and we also got a nice performance by John Cusack as a mysterious cop. Then, there's Cage who gets to have some fun playing the bad guy. Is this a great, over-the-top and wacky performance or a really bad one? Who knows? It's a Cage performance. It's certainly an interesting take on the character but it's wildness keeps it mildly interesting.ARSENAL should have been a much better movie but as it stands it's pretty much a decent time killer but nothing else.