Simply A Masterpiece

People are voting emotionally.

Absolutely the worst movie.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Three stars only because of the performance by Slaine as Nick's friend. This movie is comically bad. Every time you see the lead character he is either lighting a cigarette (he lights no fewer than 5 cigarettes in the opening scenes alone), or tossing a long, freshly lit cigarette out a car window. It almost seems as if somebody in production decided Nick looks good with a full Marlboro 120, but not with one that is half smoked. If it didn't mean sitting through this mud again, I'd love to go back and see exactly how many times a cigarette is lit by either Nick one of the other one dimensional wannabe gangster characters. At any given time somebody is flipping open an old school zippo and doing a Fonzarello routine lighting his smoke. The only saving grace in this film is the performance by Slaine as Nick's best friend. This guy is extremely watchable in this role (and lights up the screen instead of a smoke).

I won't say this film is a pure masterpiece but it is definitely a good film noir. I admit it is slow, sometimes a little too long on some scenes, such as this one in the warehouse and borrowed from RESERVOIR DOGS, with a little too much talking. But the story, even foreseeable and cliché on some points, reminds me Phil Joanou's STATE OF GRACE, remember, starring Sean Penn, another film noir involving friends, brother and the gang, where Ed Harris could be imagined in the Harvey Keitel role. Yes, I definitely love this little unknown, at least, not known enough, feature very dark, gloomy and not for all audiences. I have seen many of this kind and have hundreds of those in my huge Library. I will never get tired of that. Never, over my dead body.

Imagine if you will all the scenes in 'Mafia' films that have stirred your imagination or induced a sense of wonder at the 'mob' culture both at the internal structure of the 'family' and the loyalty that it demands, or, the dark and depraved levels of brutality that is served colder than yesterday's Ziti. Each film, and let's not forget the wonderful Sopranos series depicted more than their fair share of gruesome details. Now imagine hurrying to fill every scene, sub-plot and hard hitting moment into one film? Well, this is it. This film seems hurried, the scenes are empty and the plot holes and unbelievable relationships between characters are clear and awkward. This is a film that you think you've seen before simply because there's nothing original to the viewer. I did find myself saying 'no' at predictable story lines... I did say 'no' rather a lot!The best thing about this film was smiling at Harvey Keitels New Jersey? accent.

Watched this last night, hoping to see something along the lines of, well, good acting. I was bitterly disappointed. To call the lead wooden, would be an insult to trees. Awful script. Awful direction. Awful acting. Awful..........just awful. Harvey Keitel does his best, but he must have known this was going to be a Krimbo turkey from day one. Painful to watch, and I can only hope whoever cast this recovers quickly.Low budget boredom from start to finish, with unbelievable dialogue. Wrong Turn at Tahoe, makes this film look like what it is, a cheap, no thrills D movie.I implore you, gentle film viewer, to give this one a wide, wide berth. To sum up, do not waste your precious time!