BootDigest
Such a frustrating disappointment
FrogGlace
In other words,this film is a surreal ride.
Marva-nova
Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
Michael Ledo
The movie opens with Jason getting out of prison. The opening line sets the tone for the movie "One thing I've learned in the last seven years: in every game and con there's always an opponent, and there's always a victim. The trick is to know when you're the latter, so you can become the former."There is a lot of first person narration by Statham. If the first few minutes we know he is being scammed and will somehow turn the scam on his scammers. The story becomes, who is scamming who? There are a lot of criminals and tough guys in this casino based story. Ray Liotta plays a casino manager/crime boss who has placed a hit on Jason, while bad guy Vincent Pastore plays a loan shark who protects Jason...for a price. Jason knows he is being conned, but what is it? How does he recover?The soundtrack is good and a constant throb. Statham's narration becomes a little annoying, but it is a major part of the film. There were a few times I thought I was watching Tarantino, especially with the cartoons. This is not your typical Statham, wears the shades, jumps on roof tops action film. It has none of that. As the film progresses, it get weirder. I would love to give you a spoiler review, except I wasn't sure I understood the ending. Good Luck.F-bomb, brief nudity
Fujiko-san
I don't even know where to start. The premise is a very interesting one, but the script is full of useless characters and stylistic flourishes that confuse and bewilder. At one point in the middle, I even thought I had perhaps taken acid by mistake. The sudden dive into flashes of hand-drawn animation are never explained or even justified. We are treated to endless, mind-numbing flashbacks, unexpectedly lacklustre acting by Andre 3000, the dialog (or voice over) is ofttimes cliche and tacked together, there are characters and plot lines that make no sense (though some are quite charming)... Basically, the script is terrible. There is no getting around it- despite valiant efforts from Liotta and Stratham.Visually it is VERY interesting, however. The decors are off the hook. The koreans are pretty amazing and every scene their boss is in- well freaking electric.
There is this killer played by Mark Strong (I always have a soft spot for him) and this little girl who deserve a story all their own. This cannot save the weak ending, however, (par for the course) and the vague moral lacks punch and does the message a terrible disservice.
tfmiltz
I think I saw this when it came out and though - oh - another useless Jason movie.Oh contraire - I held through this - wondering why Ray invested time into it.What many will not get is - what we see in this movie - are not real.For example, I once saw the book for Deliverance - the author on the back said the characters in Deliverance were actually all parts of one persons psyche.Now, did that ever come through with Deliverance ? noHOWEVER in THIS movie, this movie has it's surreal setbacks but at the SAME TIME - it's far more than a passive cinematic venture.You can actually grow from watching this, here is a HINT as to where I'm at with the movie...The neighbors he had in his solitary confinement cell?never existed.A troubled mind will go through great extent to keep itself alive.This movie is worth rewatching, the symbolization of the little girl is still an open book for me.Easily one of the most complex intellectual offerings I've ever encountered.If you are going through your 19th nervous breakdown, this movie is FOR YOU!
mutambutapu
I'll give it a 9 because of all the ways possible to interpret and perceive the events and meanings in this movie. I do not know why but what I see in this movie is 2 self-educated genii exploiting entire mob gangs governed by morons and self-proclaimed leaders of the mob world. Jack Green in this story is just a pieces moved on real life chess board. It was quite clear that Avi and Zach are Jack's neighbors next door from solitary prison cells. They knew everything about him, stole everything he had when they escaped prison and did whatever they do to stay in a shadow and control environment without being notices. When Jack leaves prison, makes money and gets targeted by the owner the casino they magically appear and offer help. Somehow they now every step taken by the casino owner and gets few moves ahead of everyone. Intercepts assassination of Jack and then convinces him that he has got a disease so he loses common sense and stops thinking rationally. He gives them all of his money which are lent to a bunch of desperate people who think that they will be able to give the money back but obviously they can't. So they end up in Loan Shark pocket enslaving themselves. So Jack is now one their puppets, their assets. Later on these 2 genii carry on manipulation by creating the image of so called Mr Gold which becomes a real real big boss in the eyes of Macha. So Macha tries everything to satisfy this mysterious figure. He fears to turn down the mythical being so much that he decides to pay ridiculous money for his competition in exchange for white powdery stuff. Well, we all saw how well it went. And it would be naive to disregard mastermind power of these to criminals who know where when and how enemy is going to act in a certain situation. They are the ones behind everyone's misfortune including Mr Green's. The real big bosses are smoking cigars in a Jacuzzi when stupid gangsters chase the wrong guy. Literally, the whole story is an ingenious design of Mr black magic a.k.a. Avi and put into practice by the practical engineer Zach. If you do the math, Avi and Zach do not exist in the eyes of neither Macha, nor Lord John. All the blame is pushed onto Mr Green since he was scamming everyone before no one would expect anyone else to be involved. These 2 get the money for the powder and the powder itself. The gang war starts, assassination of Macha fails so they make Mr Green to hand in Lord John's powder to Macha himself. In this way Macha is certainly dead since the owners of Lord John will not forget that Macha stole their powder and brought a shame to clan. So Macha understood that is f*ked and blew his head off because bullet in his brain is much better than an upcoming bad fate from Asian mafia.You might try to see some Ego issues in MrGreen's personality but the only one who had an enormous Ego was Macha. Look at his palace, items at home, sick attention to perfection - he takes full body tan in a huge room, criticizes a professional sniper, really??? Anyway all of these mobsters think they are in control but the real control comes from 2 unnoticed puppeteers.
