Just perfect...

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

As Good As It Gets

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The story isn't so bad, if unoriginal. There are quite a few good actors. There are some interesting and funny parts in there. Most of the time violence is not too much (these are violent people).But, it simply fails. Stana Katic is not a good enough actress to pull this through, Tom Berenger tries, but is mostly out of character and other good actors seem to not have their heart into it. There are way too many silly things in the story for it to hold up (at one point, Stana Katic overpowers a man twice here size in a simple power struggle, at another point she goes into a "no thinking" attack on four guys, while up to that point she was doing a lot of thinking and planning to single out a guy away from everyone else...).Given that there are _much_ worse movies out there, this is an OK watch if you like violent movies with a few funny/interesting parts and a female protagonist. But if you're not a fan of such films, you're better of with something else.

Stiletto is a brash, ballsy love letter to schit kicking, macho 80' action flicks that fires on booze soaked, bullet ridden cylinders to bring us a pulpy tale of evil gangsters, bent cops, sleazy criminals and the deadly Eastern European femme fatale that ties them all together in the web of violence, corruption and vengeance they have stirred up. They have also stirred up her fury as well, and she descends upon them one by with the forces of hell, and the titular stiletto blade, which gets rammed, sliced and slashed across many a deserving limb or neck. Her name is Raina, and she's portrayed by underrated vixen Stana Katic, who most will know from the TV show Castle, or 24. She's got charisma to spare, and gives the classic female assassin role a careful depth and smouldering hurt that fuels her bloody rampage and gives her brutality a justified edge. The rest of the cast is dominated by the dudes, and director Nick Vallellonga lovingly peppers his roster with an unbelievable handful of iconic 80's and 90's action stars. No throwaway cameos here either; each one is given a fleshed out, memorable slice of noirish material to chomp down on, and each one creates a delightfully nasty rogue to add to their gallery of characters. Raina used to be the the moll of shady Greek mobster Virgil Vadalos (Tom Berenger, drenched in tan lotion, adorned with chains and growling like a disgruntled bulldog. Great work). He has betrayed her in some unforgivable way, unbeknownst to the audience. She near fatally wounds him, and he goes into hiding, sending a corrupt detective (Paul Sloan) and two of his trusted enforcers to flush her out and bring her to him. William Forsythe, in all his sarcastic, blustering glory, plays slick Alex, a cunning Russian thug with more up his sleeve than is laid back personality may suggest. Michael Biehn, in my favourite performance of the film, plays Lee, a psychopathic hothead with a live wire British girlfriend (Amanda Brooks on overdrive) and a penchant for extreme interrogation techniques (there's a scene involving D.B. Sweeney and an electric sander that will make you cringe). Biehn has a colourful career playing energetic live wires, and this is no slouch. He's a happily violent, unapologetically profane, contemptible prick, and lights up the screen with fabulous nihilistic energy. Raina also gets tangled up with other lowlifes and associates in her search for retribution, including scummy night clubbing Tom Sizemore, and the leader of a neo nazi skinhead biker clan played with scary, coked up rage by veteran thespian James Russo, making a limited appearance count by flooding the screen with violent threats and intense glowering. There's also great work from gorgeous Kelly Hu as another cop, Diane Venora from Heat as Berenger's long suffering wife, and underrated Dominique Swain as well. People will undoubtedly whine about misogyny with this one, and hell I wouldn't disagree with them. The male characters are a scary bunch of amoral, bottom feeding motherf____ers who don't think twice about the kind of trauma they inflict on girls. But you know what? Welcome to the real world, where things like that exist, and are reflected in artistic expression, like movies. It's present in the story here, and although necessarily dwelled upon, as dictated by the genre, it's never glorified, however ugly it gets. That's not to say it's completely in bad taste. Hell, the narrative is about one single woman carving a swath of carnage through the men that committed atrocities against her. So there. There's sympathy and feeling to it as well, albeit briefly, as the flashback sequence where we see what happened to her (I won't spoil anything) is handled with care and given space for it to really hit us. That being said, the majority of the movie is an excessively violent, over the top, near cartoonish homage to the hard boiled crime genre. And I'm not kidding about the violence. Some of the damage inflicted rivals anything that you'd see in a Saw movie, and will leave some gagging. But I'd expect nothing less from a film that attempts this kind of 'feel'. Go all the way, or don't even bother trying, I say. There's some nice twists as well, some real thought put into the deceptions, betrayals and arcs of these characters. Katic anchors it like a streamlined feline of righteous anger and uses her natural dark beauty as a deceptive ruse to lure the hard bitten scumbags orbiting her to their certain deaths at the hands of her skill, training and pure hatred. Anyone looking for a down and dirty, bloody bit of vengeful crime fun that makes Kill Bill look mild in comparison owes it to themselves to give this one a try.

Raina is a annoying and not a very likable girl on the hunt to avenge and uncover the truth about her sister's kidnapping. When she discovers that her former lover, mob boss Virgil Vadalos, and his associates are directly responsible, she is out for vengeance. The thing is, I just didn't care for any of the characters, especially Raina the protagonist. In fact when it started to get closer to the end of the film, I just wanted her to die. This is a pretty bad revenge movie plain and simple. The twist was even predictable and don't even care for it at all what so ever, it is weak. It's a boring revenge flick, there is plenty of better films of this type of genre not even really worth the price of rental. The cover seemed a bit promising, but don't judge this film by it's cover cause it sucks.2.8/10

Wickedly violent revenge drama with Tom Berenger as a Greek crime boss who, along with other people, is being hunted by a young Russian girl who used to be his mistress. The whys and who's of the affair take the full running time to unravel so I won't say more than that. What I will say is that this is a mean and nasty film with violence exploding usually in ways we least expect it, in a manner that is really in your face. This is a movie that makes you frequently sit up and go "whoa". Well stocked with a fantastic cast of character actors (William Forsythe, Michel Beihn, James Russo, Tom Sizemore among others) this is as solid a "B" crime film as I've seen recently. (and I mean B as in the classic definition of a B film, the sort that was carefully crafted to play on a double feature, that was made with care and not just thrown together). If there is any real flaw, or if there is going to be any point that may trouble some viewers it's that the film is very complex, or at least it doesn't reveal anything until the stand in for the audience, the cop working for Berenger, finds anything out. This makes for several scenes that seem like they are coming for left field, when in reality they are not. (I'm also sure that the end will leave some people annoyed, but I'm not one of them, I think it works). Worth a bucket of popcorn and a soda for anyone wanting a dark little crime film to "brighten" up their evening.