The Heavy
The Heavy
| 08 April 2010 (USA)
The Heavy Trailers

Sibling rivalry turned into betrayal between two brothers. One a prime candidate for Prime Minister, the other a henchman for a successful, yet shady businessman. Presented with an opportunity to take revenge against his brother, our anti-hero must come to terms with the truth in a world where you can trust no one and loyalty is rare.

Reviews
Sameer Callahan

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

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Roy Hart

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

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Kinley

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

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Brooklynn

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

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JoeytheBrit

It's difficult to know where to start describing all the things that are wrong about this movie while also explaining why it was reasonably entertaining. I can understand why some (many) other reviewers felt The Heavy was an awful experience – I just can't quite share their absolute disdain for it.Gary Stretch plays Boots Mason, an embittered ex-con with anger management issues who is employed to assassinate his own brother Christian, a politician with aspirations to one day become Prime Minister (so we know he's a bad guy right from the off). However, Christian has learned of the plot to off him and hires the thuggish Detective Dunne (Vinnie Jones, sporting a rather splendid goatee of which he seems justifiably proud) to track down the assassin.While this is no classic by anyone's reckoning, it somehow just about manages to overcome a high quota of drawbacks in order to deliver a reasonably absorbing thriller that runs out of steam about fifteen minutes from the credits thanks largely to an overlong running time. Ex-boxer Stretch certainly has screen presence, and the camera likes his brooding, slightly battered looks, but his acting talent is limited – something of which he seems to be aware given the careful manner in which he delivers his lines. His character broods moodily for much of the film, but then he's got a lot to brood over. Vinnie Jones as his nemesis, the brutish Detective Dunn, gives a much more assured performance and effortlessly enlivens things when he lumbers onto the screen. Other familiar faces include Stephen Rea as a slimy crime baron, Christopher Lee as Boot's dad, Jean Marsh as his mum, and Lee Ryan as slimy Steve's weaselly sidekick.Apart from its' overlong running time, the film's major stumbling block is the truly bad acting, a flaw not helped by a dull script that lacks any purpose other than to move the action on to the next scene. Given the quality of the cast, the poor standard of the acting is something of a surprise. By far the worst is Adrian Paul as Boots' terminally ill brother, whose use of inflection is so misjudged that he seems to have no idea of what he is actually saying. I've honestly seen more convincing delivery from foreign actors speaking English they have learned phonetically. Jean Marsh is also entirely unconvincing as Boots' mum.

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Philip Mackenzie

This film actually fascinated me. The cast are quite a mixed bunch and from all acting backgrounds. I was amazed to see Lee Ryan i had to do a double take but I thought his character was great and he played it well. Vinnie Jones always adds a threatening presence to the screen but this time it is on the right side of the law.Gary Stretch just plays it cool .To summarise this up this is not your standard action film At first i struggled with the film, but after watching it all the way through realise that it has its own type of style "in a good way" and the music suits the film.Itseems to be like the European type hit men films.Christopher Lee and Jean Marsh add some heavy names to the cast but to be honest are not on screen long enough to shine. My advice give it a chance and enjoy watching some good British actors working together.

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Pablo1982

Whilst it is good to see some new stuff coming out of the British film industry I didn't quite enjoy this film as much as I had hopedFor one thing, Obstructive Cardiomyopathy is indeed a nasty disease and it is indeed familial. However, I spent most of the move trying to figure out exactly what Boots had to give for his brother as a heart transplant would leave him... well, dead. So this gap in the plot was too irreconcilable for me to be honest The characters aren't too complex and seemed to float in and out of scene a little too much. more could have been revealed about Boot's pastThe clocks were a nice touchOn the whole the film was watchable and made for a nice movie whilst the wife was out on a girls night out.

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andy-gilligan

I had high hopes for this movie. The plot was a man out of jail working as a debt collector for a local business who was asked to do one last job, in order to get out of it all!! then you have his brother Christian (played by an awful Adrian Paul from the Highlander TV series) who was responsible for putting him in prison who wants to make amends for what happened. When i say "make amends" it certainly doesn't pan out in that way. More on this character later. Gary Stretch who plays the lead character Mitchell Mason, has a good on-screen presence, but he is not a leading man. He is surrounded by some heavyweights and some seriously bad "lightweights" that actually make him look like Robert De Niro at times (no offence Bob). He tries his best but even Vinnie Jones as the corrupt cop makes him look like a cardboard cut-out as he hams up the "bad cop" role like a spit-roasted pig.Christopher Lee and Jean Marsh are on show (yet i can't see what possessed them to want to be part of this?) play the parents and some of their scenes are so painful to watch as they are put in scenes with such awful acting that you feel embarrassed for them! Stephen Rea does his best as an upper class bad guy but you still cringe watching the drivel script he has to deal with. Then you have Sadie Frost as a local Bar Owner (i'm not sure what this part of the film's purpose was, as it was pointless). Then you have the worst acting I have seen in a long time. Hang on, 2nd worst!Adrian Paul who plays Mitchell's brother Christian, simply CANNOT act, and that is an understatement. I have seen dead people show more emotion and talent than this guy. I think the director actually did him a favour in hiring the actress to play his wife as she is even worse, and that must have been tough. The acting by these 2 characters would've been perfect in an Olaf Ittenbach horror movie. Yes, its that bad!!The storyline is all over the place as it tries to be cool and modern by going back and forth in the timelines. I think the film would have worked better if they had just done it from first date to last. I think new directors must think this works in gangster style movies but in this one it fails.On a plus point, the scenes with Shannyn Sossamon (Claire) are the high points of the film. If only they had put more into this than they did, it could've actually been a good film. There is definitely a chemistry there between the 2 characters and they should have focused on this a lot more. I would say Shannyn's performance is one of the better ones overall.The last 20-30 minutes of this film are actually not bad, if you can endure the first 70 minutes. But don't expect anything special with this film. You won't get it!! Best thing to do? go and dig out Going Off Big Time. Similar film but better acting, script, plot, etc.

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