Movies

I happened to stumble on this one night. What a mesmerizing movie! Gary Oldman is terrific as a corrupt Detective. You get the feeling from this guy that he was probably once a young, idealistic, honest cop, who has just been slowly manipulated, and seduced by the seaminess, the money, the sex, the despair.How this guy could stray from Annabella Sciorra is beyond me, but that's another story.What you see is this guy's whole life crumble down around him, due to his poor choices, his dishonesty, and his inability to control his cravings. Just about everything that could go wrong does, and his entire life, everything he thought he was working for, virtually blows up in his face.To finally see, and realize all he's lost is played out very well by Oldman. A very well-done, well-acted film.

which strictly speaking should not be stealable in the first place.I mean, on the surface this is one of those oddball in-color "film noire" gangstery films which Hollywood has become so fond of recently.It has an especially clever script and reminds me in subtle ways of the many cross-arcs in Lucky Number Slevin.The two stars Gary Oldman and Lena Olin both do not usually get the chance to do a star turn, they are both very under-used as primary characters, and that should be the end of the review.But it is not. Olin gives an extraordinary performance, part sensuality, part evil genius, part crazy. By the end of the film she makes Kevin Spacey look like a chartered accountant.Also a nice cautionary tale on letting your reach exceed your grasp.Extraordinary. Highly recommended.

Right after the Professional. A quite sick and sadistic tale of a talented cop gone horribly bad and the woman he is obsessed with. Oldman plays a detective named Jack Grimaldi who sells out witnesses to the Mob but meets his match when he attempts to sell out Mona Demarkov, a Russian hit woman who is as clever and dangerous as she is gorgeous. Grimaldi must find and kill Mona or a mob boss will kill him. This film had a great supporting cast and an unusual ending. Also look for Dennis Farina as a Mafia killer turned stool pigeon. You can't see him clearly but his voice is unmistakable. The violence is shocking but what do you expect from a crime movie I would have been disappointed if there hadn't been. Nudity is kept to a minimum. Definitely worth watching.