Kevin Bacon was an American Icon before deciding a few years ago to give his image an overhaul. He weathered the storm of Hollow Man, but not content to leave well enough alone, he wanted to go back to that dark place. What better way to go back to being dark than to do a movie directed by the guy responsible for the first Saw. That probably should have been a big warning sign for me, but after trying to see it theater and failing because the projector broke, I had to see what happened after the first 5 minutes I saw in the theaters.
Nick Hume(Bacon) is a mild mannered man who works in risk Management and he has a perfectly lovely wife and two kids. They all seem very happy together and even spend birthdays together, without friends and the family documents every birthday on a video camera, even as the two young boys get into their teenage years. The oldest son is a hockey star and one night on the way home from a game, father and stop to get gas. Two old muscle cars appear, some wild and crazy gang members jump out and within minutes the son is killed. It turns out this was a gang initiation but it sends Hume over the edge. Soon he takes to vigilante justice by stabbing the kid who killed his son. The crazy gang (we know they are crazy because they all have shaved heads, leather jackets and are all tattooed up) won't let it go and soon the war is on. Yes a war between a gang of street kids and one man. Don't worry though, the street gang who has been shooting guns for years can't seem to hit anything and Hume, well he is an excellent shot, although we are fairly certain he has never shot a gun. He can blow off body parts with excellent precision all while being shot at by 3 or 4 bad guys!
Very little in this movie makes a lick of sense. How can Hume find the gang where ever they are but the cops, led by the god awful Aisha Tyler can never find them. How can Hume as one man continue to pick this gang of rough and tumble gang members? Why is there so much terrible music? Why does the director decide to use slow motion every time someone puts on a jacket? And why is that slow motion always unintentionally hilarious?! Oh and How did John Goodman end up this is movie playing a gun runner, a drug dealer maybe, oh and in a pointless out of nowhere twist, the father of the gang leader? No I could forgive some of those things if the movie was at least entertaining, but it really isn't. In a foot chase that lasts an ungodly 5 minutes, Bacon is shown leaping over a box; he doesn't just jump over it, the director makes a point of showing him leaping over it like it is a 4 foot high hurdle, for no reason! The usually solid Bacon is slumming it and not even looking like he is having any sort of fun whatsoever. I give the movie a point for 1 entirely unpredictable plot twist, but the audience doesn't really get to feel the effect of it. Just to show you how bad of a shot everyone in the gang is, at one point they shoot Bacon at point blank range and they didn't even kill him! Also, I am sure gangs still exist to this day, but there is something very 90s about the plot of this movie. It is based on a novel, but I can;t imagine the novel is much better because there are inherent problems in the story. Vigilante movies call be fun and intense (Falling Down) but this is neither. Lastly, it isn't even particularly bloody, undeserving of the "unrated" label on the DVD I watched today.
Final Grade: F
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