Triggermen (2002) User Reviews

The wrong mafiosi

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 15 October 2005]

John Bradshaw's "Triggermen" deserved a bigger audience. Judging by the comments submitted to this forum, it must have been a film that went directly to DVD, because obviously it was abandoned to its fate by the distributors. Mr. Bradshaw shows he can produce films that keep the viewer entertained and because he gets good performances from his cast. The film was written by Tony Johnson.

The main interest for watching "Triggermen" was to see Adrian Dunbar and Neil Morressey, who are excellent actors. They play a pair of English low lives who have come to Chicago in search of easy schemes, but they haven't been lucky. That is, until Pete, stumbles upon an case that contains money and a photograph of someone who has to be eliminated. His solution is to take advantage of the situation, move with Andy from the seedy place they are staying into the posh hotel that has been reserved for the would be killer.

This pair gets much more than what they bargained for. Little do they know they have double crossed the real pair of executioners. The film is a comedy of errors that delivers a lot because of the mistaken identities. Since one knows who is who, there is no suspense because one realizes where the film is going.

Pete Postlewaite, one of the best English character actors, appears as the retiring mafia don, Ben Cutler, who is staying in the hotel with his lovely daughter. Claire Forlini is a gorgeous woman to look at, and as Emma, the daughter, she becomes the object of love for one of the real assassins, Terry, who falls in love with her. These other duo, played by Donnie Wahlberg and Michael Rapaport, are good in most of their scenes together.

Let's hope John Bradshaw will be back soon with another film where he will be recognized for his obvious talent.

Simple but it works

[Enchorde · 6/10 · 3 November 2009]

Recap: Two small time British crooks find themselves in Chicago, and after stealing the right suitcase find themselves in possession of a luxurious hotel suite and a lot of cash. They figure they can live it large a few days before they skip town and return home. But suddenly the suitcase they stole becomes very wrong when it becomes apparent that the room and money is intended for two hit men hired to assassinate a gangster boss also staying at the hotel. The situation quickly becomes chaotic. The two Brits tries to pose as killers to convince the rivaling gangster they are the hit men. The real hit men are searching and wondering where their job disappeared. And in the middle of it, as always, is a beautiful girl.

Comments: Could be hilarious, but isn't. Could be action packed, but isn't. Could be a serious gangster-movie, but isn't. Instead it is a toned down movie with a little from all. The story is nothing new, actually it is rather full of clichés we have seen many times before. It doesn't surprise with a high tempo or some action packed scenes, it almost seem fresh and new because it doesn't rely on such tricks. It is a rather average movie with a competent cast that simply works. It isn't close to being any masterpiece, but it entertains. Simply put, it is a fun movie.

6/10

I quite enjoyed it

[joedfilms · 7/10 · 25 January 2008]

I'd never heard of this film in Britain, but picked it up in a second hand DVD store having moved to Canada in 2007. I figured it would be a safe bet with so many well-known English actors and Donnie Wahlberg.

We enjoyed watching it. OK, so it wasn't laugh out loud funny throughout, but it was entertaining enough. Wahlberg was good. Forlani looked great throughout & did a good job. Morrisey was Morrisey (I'm not a big fan as he only ever plays one role). I preferred Dunbar and Plummer.

Overall, an enjoyable enough film. Surprised I'd never heard of it.

Worth seeing on a quiet night in.

A comedy that's rough around the edges but likable.

[jaykay-1 · 24 February 2002]

Among the films screened early on at the American Film Market 2002 in Feb., was "The Triggermen", a pleasant reminder that even with a relatively small budget, a movie can succeed if generously laced with invention and humor.

Two Brits lacking funds, Pete (Neil Morrissey) and Andy (Adrian Dunbar), are mistaken for two killers hired to bump off Ben Cutler (Pete Postlewaite) a Mob chieftain. The laughs come fast and often as one complication lands on top of another. Things are not helped when one of the so-called killers falls in love with Cutler's daughter, played by Claire Forlani.

Despite a few rough edges, director John Bradshaw brings in a likable movie I think should be high on most moviegoers have-to-see list.

Unremarkable

[travis-j-rodgers · 6/10 · 5 March 2005]

This film seems as if it tried to be a clever comedy/hardcore gangster film along the lines of Snatch, Lock Stock, and some other good ones. Unfortunately, the cast was unimpressive, the story was unoriginal, and the dialogue was not snappy in the least. It just tried to follow a common formula and did nothing new. Furthermore, the things it did, it did poorly. No one would care about these characters, no one can sympathize with much of what went on, with the possible exception of Wahlberg's character.

You can't just take a bunch of character actors and throw them into a film and expect it to work. Some of the actors are incredibly competent, but with such limited material to work with, I suppose failure was inevitable.

Lame Post Tarantino Crime Comedy

[Jakealope · 4/10 · 7 April 2010]

Yes, this is a post Tarantino movie, full of lovable, deep, insightful hit men and con men. Yes, hit men are usually pretty cool guys, except for a rogue one like Boots who gives the noble profession a bad name. Well the movie starts out on a promising theme, after a generic aborted mob hit, two English con men are trapped in a fleabag motel in Chicago (somewhere in Canada actually) without enough money to pay the landlady. They are harmless small timers who take international crime trips to America as some sort of road bonding adventure. They are two popular British TV personalities, Neil Morrissey & Adrian Dunbar, who are okay but not standout in real life. So one of them happens upon some mob loot in a luggage scam he pulls in a high class hotel lobby. It was a down payment cash for a mob hit. So these two guys, neither are suicidal or great risk takers, decide to use the reserved room that was earmarked for the real hit men and find some more loot, a key to the target's room and a pistol with a silencer. Like I said, these are small time survivor types, so naturally they hang out in the room, living it up until the mobsters who hired them, sight unseen, comes to visit. All the through the movie, one asks, "why not cut out with some easy cash and go back to England to your pregnant witch girlfriend while the going is safe?"

Meanwhile the two American hit men, who were supposed to get the room and cash are hanging out trying to figure out what happened to their lucrative contract. One of them, played by a Don Wahlberg, falls in love with some woman who happens to be the mobster's to be hit daughter. See, he is a nice guy too, misunderstood, who just wants a normal suburban life yadda yadda. The other one is played by Michael Rappaport, so he is obnoxious, stupid and loud, but not a bad guy either. You know those hit men types.

So all sorts of lame hijinks ensue as the con men pretend to be hit men and are coerced by the bad hit men to go through with it. Meanwhile the two real hit men unravel the mystery while Donnie hits on the actress. So it goes on to a lame conclusion where only the bad hit men get it and everyone else gets a piece of the action. Prety harmless, but in that respect it is more Hollywood than indie or Tarantino.

lame and boring

[netzwelter · 1/10 · 7 December 2005]

This is the most boring version of the well- known plot. What the film lacks the most is speed. Nothing really happens over long periods. It also fails poorly to catch any interest for the main two characters, the Englishmen who pretend to be the killers: they're just dull, lame and silly. The dialogs really suck; they're never funny to make up a good comedy nor are they sensible to make up a really believable gangster movie.

The only good thing about this whole movie is to see Pete Postlethwaite again (as the retiring crook); his daughter in the film is nice and beautiful. But these advantages don't compensate the severe boredom which you suffer when watching this movie.

Disgraceful waste of a good cast

[seawalker · 3/10 · 29 December 2003]

This film had a particularly good cast (kudos to Adrian Dunbar and Donnie Whalberg) and then proceeded to waste them disgracefully. Could have been, and should have been, a riotous farce. It had all of the classic elements. Incompetent villains, mistaken identity, money, pretty girl, et al, but sadly was slow, boring, and crucially, not funny.

Still, nice to see Neil Morrissey, stalwart of endless British TV series, getting a shot at international exposure. It is just a shame that this was not a better vehicle for his undoubted comic talents.

Major complaint! Where the hell was the babe, wearing the stars and stripes bikini, cuddling up to Adrian Dunbar in the Jacuzzi on the British poster? Now, she would have been worth the price of admission on her own!

Surprisingly good sleeper comedy

[viss1 · 9/10 · 15 December 2006]

I rented this one the other day and was pleasantly surprised. It's unfortunate it didn't get better distribution; it would have made a great short-term summer release.

In general, the flick is nicely-paced, the storyline is interesting enough to hold your attention, and the characters are for the most part fun to watch. The interplay between Wahlberg and Rapaport doesn't always hit the mark, but it works more often than not. Morrissey and Dunbar work well together; they have the same argument a number of different times, but it doesn't really get tedious. Postlethwaite is his usual impeccable self. The biggest revelation to me, though, was Forlani. IMO, she either plays the "sympathetic woman always on the verge of crying," or the "strong, independent, sexy love interest." This role is thankfully one of the latter. I must say she looks the best I've ever seen her look in this flick, to the point where she went up a few notches on my hotness scale.

The other reviews cover the plot well enough, so I'll wrap up by recommending this to anyone looking for an amusing, easy-to-digest gangster flick. The surprisingly hot Claire Forlani is the icing on the cake.

A bad blend of Scorsese, Crowe and Ephron

[MBunge · 3/10 · 6 April 2011]

Triggermen starts out as a bad blend of Martin Scorsese and Cameron Crowe, then turns into an even worse mix of Crowe and Nora Ephron. It's the sort of film that, while you're watching it, you frequently stop and think to yourself "Wow. This is really not any good at all." From a relentless soundtrack that never stops assaulting your ears to a story that plops itself into that groove of maximum dullness equidistant from both comedy and drama to scenes that I hope were lamely improvised or else I'm afraid that writer Tony Johnston might have some kind of brain tumor, this is a movie where almost nothing works. I say almost because Claire Forlani is always nice to look at and Donnie Wahlberg proves again here that he is, amazingly enough, the more talented Wahlberg brother.

At the risk of giving you a brain cramp, here's the plot. Andy and Pete (Andrian Dunbar and Neil Morrissey) are a couple of British crooks who've found themselves stranded in Chicago. Pete manages to steal a briefcase that a mobster (Louis Di Banco) intended for a pair of out-of-town killers (Donnie Wahlberg and Michael Rapaport). The briefcase leads Andy and Pete to a hotel room where they learn the mobster wants the killers to murder a retiring crime boss (Pete Postlethwaite), who also happens to be staying at the same hotel. Andy and Pete decide to live it up in the hotel room for a couple of days on the mobster's dime, until the mobster and his right hand thug (Bill MacDonald) show up and mistake Andy and Pete for the out-of-town killers. Meanwhile, the Wahlberg half of the actual assassins gets infatuated with a beautiful woman (Claire Forlani) he sees at the hotel, who turns out to be the daughter of the retiring crime boss. Then Andy's pregnant girlfriend (Amanda Plummer) flies across the Atlantic and shows up at the hotel…and if you haven't had an aneurysm by now, you've probably got a good sense of where it all goes from there.

Andy as a hapless blob and Pete and the overly enthusiastic friend who always gets him into trouble are vaguely amusing. The rest of the characters are as dry as desert sand and as shallow as a puddle of tears. The closest any of them come to human emotion is when Michael Rapaport feels neglected after his partner ditches him to make time with a girl. The rest of the performances are either so coarse they make a Catskills comedian seem subtle or so vacant they make the void of outer space seem like a more interesting dinner date. And while it's pretty standard for this kind of film to be propelled along by the characters' dumb decisions, these people are so moronic they shouldn't be able to dress themselves.

And let me again mention how aggravating the soundtrack of this thing was. I'm trying hard to block it all out, but I don't think there was a single scene-to-scene transition in the entire movie that wasn't underlined by 10 to 15 seconds of some annoying pop rock song. It got to the point where I began to wish that human beings as a species where born deaf, so that music would have never been invented and I would have been spared the umpteen melody missiles that Triggermen fired into my brain.

Nothing is helped by John Bradshaw's patchwork quilt approach to direction. There are bits like something out of a heist picture, bits out of something like a Coen Brothers' gangster picture, bits out of your basic romantic comedy, bits like a teen sex comedy and even a bit that belongs in some indy flick about men coming to grips with their latent homosexuality.

Sitting through Triggermen is a tiresome experience that no one else needs to go through. I suffered enough for the rest of the world.

like a big shaggy dog, impossible not to like

[wgibso0693 · 10 July 2006]

I don't know if anyone else has used this plot before but I think it is one of those gem ideas that can go anywhere. As I started to watch this, my fascination with the premise of the piece grew and grew. The various characters comfortably held my attention as I continued to wonder how it was going to work out. What more can you ask of a movie.

Wahlberg was excellent, but then he always is (Sgt. Lipton in Band of Brothers, how hard was it to stand out in a huge ensemble of guys of military service age, but he did more than fine). Watching Pete Postlethwaite's face is like reading a library full of quality novels all in a glance. He is perfect in the role. I wish Rappaport had a little more to do in this one. Neil Morrissey and Adrian Dunbar were perfectly matched as low-rent crooks stumbling into a little more than they could handle. I am going to see where else I can find Claire Forlani's work, she was very, very likable in this. At the end I finally realized how little time was spent outside the hotel but that was okay with me.

I would recommend this movie to any friend.

Didn't need too much concentration

[samthejudgeamos · 5/10 · 24 August 2021]

Easy waste of time, seeing some uK actors early in their careers. A but predictable.

Dark Comedy... Excellent Writing!

[kiwi314 · 10/10 · 14 January 2002]

This film is a must see. It has a lot of laughs and was very enjoyable. Adrian Dunbar and Neil Morrissey really carry the film well. The entire cast was excellent and truly brought to life Tony Johnston's wonderful script. If you like Snatch you'll love Triggermen!

Great laugh and even better acting!

[WARFAIR · 8/10 · 1 August 2002]

I just can make it short: It´s a great movie! The actors play very well and the whole story never gets boring. Maybe some more twists would have been better but - again - to make it short: If you have a chance, see it if crime-comedy is what you like! 8 out of 10!!!

An enjoyable mix up!

[Billthe3rd · 10/10 · 24 April 2003]

TRIGGERMEN contains all of the essential elements of a successful movie. From witty dialogue to good acting this film was a true pleasure to watch. The two British leads worked extremely well together and although I would have liked to have seen more of Michael Rappaport's character I felt that the American "hitmen" were just as dynamic.

The direction was competent and well managed. The dialogue and pacing was also excellent.

This is a movie well worthy of your time.

A Comedy of Errors with a Hit-man Twist!

[cherylktardif · 8/10 · 16 August 2006]

(Warning: possible spoilers!) Two bumbling Limey cons, Pete and Andy (Neil Morrissey and Adrian Dunbar are perfectly cast in these roles) are mistaken for professional hit men, Terry and Tommy (Donny Wahlberg and Michael Rapaport), and he fun begins. Pete and Andy just want enough money to get home to the UK, until one of them steals a suitcase left in a hotel lobby. Inside the suitcase, the cons discover a large amount of cash and a contract to kill Ben Cutler (Pete Postlethwaite), a Chicago crime lord. And there's the enticement of more money when the 'job' is done.

Meanwhile Terry and Tommy are waiting for their assignment and Terry becomes distracted by the lovely Emma (Claire Forlani). Terry wants out of the business; he wants a "normal" life with a wife and family. While he is busy chasing Claire, poor Pete and Andy are swept up into the high life. The client, Franco D'Amico (played convincingly by Louis Di Bianco), believes the Limeys are true professionals and waits patiently for the hit to be carried out.

To steal from the movie, it's like "Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys join the mob". There is a particular scene at the end that may remind some of a Three Stooges-like scenario. Just when Pete and Andy think they're doomed, in stumbles Andy's pregnant girlfriend Penny (Amanda Plummer), who suddenly has a purpose in the movie.

There is a huge role reversal in the end, and of course a happy ending for Terry and Emma, who it turns out is the daughter of crime boss Ben Cutler who is also looking at "retiring". As Tommy and Pete ride off into the sunset on two motorcycles, I'm thinking Triggermen 2 could be just around the corner.

This movie was surprisingly good, with enough dead bodies and a "Pulp Fiction" kind of humor. Very enjoyable!!

--Cheryl Kaye Tardif, author of The River and Whale Song (2007, Kunati Inc. Book Publishers)

Save your time and move on.

[chrisrolfny · 1 October 2011]

Unfortunately a waste of time. It might have worked in Ireland. I hoped at the start it might have at least the charm, if not the first class humor of say, the wonderful innocents turned Hit-men, "I Went Down". But there is no joy in this bottle.

With a much too scrumptious cast for it's left-over script; this film squanders Postlethwaite, Rappaport, Saul Rubinek and Amanda Plummer all of whom have been put to wonderful use by director/writer combos with actual talent.

But when you take two leads from years of unremarkable TV success and team them with the (in this case) unwatchable Donnie Wahlberg (no longer the New Kid on anyone's block), all costumed in outfits that must be from dumpster diving (and I may be being too harsh on the possibilities of found clothing), all sleep walking through sets more budget hunted and painful to look at than the unfolding of the plot...

And you have an thoroughly un-enjoyable waste of 2 hours. I would have liked to have been able to find even one great moment or turn of the proverbial page, but, I do a service to all by saying... Save your time and move on.