Load of rubbish!!

How sad is this?

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I came across this film unintended. Saw the name Seagal and thought OK, another B- Action movie... exactly what I wanted to see. But it said Thriller.. so I watched with interest... the opening credit went on with some pleasant music but I didn't realize then... the film did not develop as I hoped, no violence explosion, no hard shooting etc.. no running LOL... actually, now for me *SPOILER ALERTS!!!* this is a Drama /Existentialism (I always label films with 2 categories). This is by no means a Film Noir like some here on the board try to say. That is an insult to all the great films of the 40ties and early fifties... but alas, so many here have no clue about it and write stupid comments. Here we have no tension, we have no suspense and bleak outlook, that only can be done with good actors committing themselves and a good script. Here we have lame acting at best, and a director who wants to be more than he can achieve. Anyway. .. so about 30 min. into the film, I was already a little less interested, Duffy proposed Jack to fu*k his girl (May), that was the moment I said to myself Stop... what is this? Made no sense to what I was expecting from the movie.. but anyway, I was emotionally maybe a little opener that usually (because of personal reasons)... so as Jack was hit, fell in the pool.. woke up ... and then, looked at May, asking her if these were his cloth...... ever from the first second where the music came back in, when Jack was talking to May, the two tones from the song "The Spider" give an introduction, more noticeable than in the beginning of the film... same song, but at first watching, this was not clear to me. The talk, the story, was weird, but this music kept me captive... I stopped actually the film and googled the soundtrack, none available.. it is the only essential music in this film. astonishing... and a real discovery. love it, even the entry lyrics are intriguing... "I must confess, I've done you wrong, and now you're tangled in the web of my song... "exactly what i was... falling in the web of this song. GREAT!!!the song is available on Youtube, either film clip or video clip.The ending of the video clip with the vampire kiss is not necessary, because the retro look was cool enough.. (Greta didn't even have the heavy red lips as expected, she looks gorgeous). Sometimes newbies want to add too much things together which do not fit. That is maybe the border between amateurish/mechanical and real talent.The film has real flaws and weaknesses, others here have commented on that, so I refrain. But: We look movies for many reasons... this one is slightly below average but will stay in my memory because I discovered a great song.. and besides Films (DVD, MP4), I collect music... so thank you Keith Waggoner for that great song... One song is enough to make me happy and don't feel I had wasted time on the movie... :). Will even revisit the film, even though I have the lead song in my iTunes database... and listen to it a lot. 5/10

I didn't know what to expect with this movie. Maybe having little expectation is why I liked it.First of all it had a pretty good variety of good/known actors. Stephen Lang (Sargent guy from Avatar), Ted Levine (The Silence of the Lambs), even Tia Carrere and Steven Seagal have an appearance.Although the hat was a little silly. Really who wears a hat like that these days? I know, I suppose it was to add character.Not fantastic, but not that bad either. Definitely a notch above the average at least.With out giving anything away, the film had a nice dark film noir feel to it. This movie might be sort of a sleeper, I bet it will gain popularity in a few years..It might not have many reviews, and, a lot of them might not be great but I'd recommend it to anyhow who likes noir/mystery/dark style!

This nonsensical and bizarre noir initially offers some intrigue as to where exactly this dark tale is going. However, to me, it just seemed to get more and more convoluted and ridiculous as it progressed.Set in Las Vegas, George Eads gives a solid performance here as Jack, a wise-cracking poker playing chump, who always seems to be dodging or getting beaten up by his creditors. One night, he's approached in the casino by a wealthy smarmy gambler, named Duffy (Stephen Lang), who offers Jack a chance to make some big bucks, but won't reveal to him the details.When Jack gets desperate enough for cash, he takes Duffy up on his offer and goes to his mansion. Jack soon finds out the deal is for him to have sex with Duffy's sultry wife May (AnnaLynne McCord), while Duffy observes and Jack will receive $20,000.Of course, you know that things are not going to go smoothly and Jack will get himself deeper and deeper in a web of deceit and death. When Duffy's brother Lewis arrives on the scene, even more mayhem and murder will follow.As so often happens in these types of films, Steven Seagal's name will be used for advertising but his screen time is limited in a supporting role. Why Tia Carrere agreed to play a ridiculous cameo role of a strip club drinks hustler is beyond me.All in all, I found Eads performance here good, but after an initial interest into where this was going, I just found this noir to eventually turn into just a muddled mess of a movie.

"If you want to live, if you want those you care about to live, you will do this." Jack (Eads) is a poker player who is on a losing streak, and not just with the cards. When a chance meeting with a high roller gives Jack the opportunity to make some serious money he decides to take him up on his offer. When he is offered $20,000 to do something he doesn't want to do an argument happens and things go horribly wrong. Now that his life is in danger he is offered a way out. Jack must now decide what is more important to him. After watching so many of these cheesy action movies I was expecting yet another drawn out movie that could have been done in 20 min but drug out for 90. I have to say much like the recent movie Throwdown I was really surprised at how much I liked this. The movie is really nothing new but for some reason it drew me and I kept me interested the entire time. Overall, nothing amazing but this was very entertaining and I liked it much more than I expected. I surprisingly give this a B-.