YES it's bad - and THIS is why
I'm not looking to get into a slagging match with fans of this film - these are just my opinions on WHY this film is what it is - a lame straight to dvd 'bad copy' of a copy of previously played characters, genres, ideas, styles and clichés.
1- not only did the matchstick character look stupid but he was a complete embarrassment to watch. for some reason he appeared to think he was heath ledger from the dark knight. a silly character who was VERY poorly written, at times it seemed as though he needn't be in the film at all. in fact they may have well had him ware a t-shirt saying "look at me ooooh im pissing all over heath's grave and the director seems to think this is just fine"
2- the pan-zooms on the buildings in the intro had no business, one long zoom to the building in question would have been better than panning in on the corners of random structures.
3- the film blew it's load all over 'shoot em up' from the get-go. no brood no tension just bad splatter supposedly yealding a 'wow' factor.
4- i couldn't figure out, at times, if this film was parodying itself as being a bad imitation or if the director was REALLY under the impression that they were pulling this off.
5- the modern 'retro-noir' thing was done supreme by Sin City and not too long ago KILLED by the savage poo that was 'The Spirit'. this film came off as a very bad imitation of an imitation but without the visual effects budget.
6- throwing in one cool 50's car and a mustang does not make everything ok.
7- horrific cgi, inconsistent sound editing, cheesy effects.
8- the casting agent wishes they could have afforded Scarlet.J instead of Elsa Pataky.
9- Ving Rhames is an excellent actor and deserves better. i last saw him in 'bringing out the dead' within which he was excellent.
10- the first 37 minutes felt like an hour.
11- the cinematography was cliché deluxe.
12- the script was cliché deluxe, not even in the self-aware sense.
13- the titles looked cheap.
14- the 'innocent looking sexy Japanese girl' with the skills of an assassin - yawn yawn yawn - Kill Bill owned it and Bitch Slap rinsed it - BORING. and her look of 'recollection' about her life as she straddles malone on the stage, is so amateur, it was hard to watch. surely the director is supposed to guard the editor from including such 'performances' and out-right horrible 1st year acting school delivery.
+ as far as i know even the most insistent of sound designers do not believe that a sword being swished through the air makes a sound like it's grazing another metal object.
15- all the flashbacks of malone watching his family getting murdered never happened then? and when he finally, by some kind of voodoo manages to contact them by phone he chooses to hang up. yeah right.
16- the colour grading was horrific, blacks far too crushed in many shots and a vast number were miss-matched.
17- the entire picture was obviously(?) shot on a digital camera, the genesis? or maybe even . . . an SLR? sure as *beep* wasn't done using a RED ONE. if this turns out in fact to not have been shot using the mankest digi-cam i would be in shock and awe. if anything this film is either TRYING to destroy the rep of digital cinima, or has been directly employed by kodak to do so.
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all said and done this is a BAD rip-off of a REALLY BAD film - The Spirit. i say 'rip-off' but it doesn't even then come close to something that was *beep* in the first place. even the key-art was a rip-off of a bazillion other artworks/dvd covers/posters. Sin City isn't god on wheels but it sure did set a damn high standard for any modern 'retro-noir' style film.
in conclusion this film is a DELUXE CACK-FEST and the bastard son of CLICHE SUPREME. it's not hard to see why it went straight to dvd and it's a DAMN shame that Russell Mulcahy - director of Highlander - has this to show as his latest work.