Please don't spend money on this.

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

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Jimmy Kilmartin (David Caruso) is trying to stay clean in Queens. He and his wife Bev (Helen Hunt) have a baby. His cousin Ronnie Gannon (Michael Rapaport) pulls him back into working for Little Junior Brown (Nicolas Cage). Jimmy is arrested. He doesn't rat out Little Junior and in exchange, Bev is taken care of. Bev is forced to work for Ronnie as he cheats her out of the money. Big Junior Brown (Philip Baker Hall) is Junior's father and they own the strip club Baby Cakes. Ronnie gets the recovering alcoholic Bev drunk and she wakes up in his bed the next morning. In shock, she drives off and dies in a car accident. During the funeral, Bev's sister Rosie (Kathryn Erbe) tells Jimmy the truth. To get Ronnie, Jimmy rats out the crew except Ronnie. Believing Ronnie is the actual rat, Little Junior has him killed. Year later with parole coming up, police detective Frank Zioli (Stanley Tucci) threatens to out Jimmy to Little Junior. Jimmy is forced to be an informant on Little Junior. With Big Junior dead, Little Junior is the new boss and the police is actually targeting his business partner Omar (Ving Rhames). Meanwhile, Jimmy has remarried to Rosie and trying to carve out a normal life.Nicolas Cage steals this movie for both good and bad. His character is unforgettable. However, it's so big that the movie loses the thread of an intense noir thriller. David Caruso is fine and so is almost everybody else. Michael Rapaport continues his jittery sleazy bad-influence character. The story is a little long trying to do too much. For example, it would cost nothing to keep Bev around for the whole movie. With a couple of tweaks, Bev and Rosie's characters could have been combined. With some simplification and compression, this would a much tighter thriller.

As with any role she assays, Kathryn Erbe creates a character of such depth and meaning that she deservedly receives most of the attention of audiences. Here, she takes an underwritten part and through her compassion, spirituality, and sensuality makes the film her own. Anyone who has watched her on Law and Order: Criminal Intent, OZ, Homicide: Life On the Street on television, or seen the films Dream With the Fishes, 3 Backyards, or especially and most notably Blume In Love, realizes Ms. Erbe is an actor's actor. She is certainly one of the most gifted women working as an actor in any medium. Over the course of Criminal Intent, she was able to keep the character of Eames fresh and real while holding her own with grace as her co-star did everything possible to overshadow her. There was, however, no ignoring Ms. Erbe's presence. The film now being discussed is a weak remake and not very good, simply put. Yet Kathryn Erbe makes her part shine and with a subtle power makes her character outstanding. She deserves an opportunity in better quality films to demonstrate how gifted and talented she is. She has done this time after time on stage and whether in film or on television, audiences are always in for something very special when her name appears in the credits.

I saw the scoring for this film and thought 5.9/10 was just plain wrong and felt the need to give my opinion.Personally, I'm quite a fan of those film noirs/crime dramas from the 40/50s, mainly because of their tense atmosphere and gritty realism and so with this being a remake of a classic original, this was right up my street.All I'm going to say about the movie is that the plot is fast paced, exciting, with several twists and keeps you involved right through to the end.David Caruso got panned by critics for his role in this and I felt that was unjust as I thought his performance and demeanour were just right for the character he was playing.The rest of the cast is great and with some great performances by Ving Rhames, Nic Cage, Stanley Tucci, and in particular Anthony Heald as the scumbag lawyer.As a previous reviewer said, perhaps some people were put off this film by the sheer nastiness of some of the characters, but try to put that to one side and enjoy the ride.I'd probably give this movie a solid 8/10, but because of the overall rating I'm going to give it a 10.

I loved this movie. It was exciting. It had Nicholas Cage in it. The mob was in it. Car chopping, Thugs killing each other. That red haired guy from CSI Miami - Nicholas Cage owned a strip club and liked to beat people up- I loved it.Thanks. Samuel Jackson was in it. What else..... Hell, I wish I could of been in it. I could of at least played a stripper. Nicholas Cage was buffed out. He was a bad ass. I loved it. He is so hot. I liked when they beat that guy up in the garage because the guy was supposed to give the girl a ride home but did'nt . She woke up and tried to steal the guy's car but got killed trying to escape. So, They went to the guy's garage and took him out.That's what I'm talking about.... Yeah.