Donnie Wahlberg and Jason Gedrick team up again - they were both in the excellent Boomtown - but this time it just doesn't work. Gedrick is a night club owner in Miami who it seems is also dabbling in some money laundering with the local Columbian underworld. Wahlberg - we are lead to believe - looks like a small time hoodlum trying his luck away from the cold of New York. They team up and the film tells their story.
But what is the story exactly? A lot of the film centres around the night club, drinking, smoking. Some parties and doing weights are thrown in but the whole thing doesn't make much sense. Any important events seem to happen off-screen where we - the viewer - have no idea what is going on. The thing becomes too hard to swallow and by the time the little twist (and I mean 'little') comes - we have gone beyond caring.
The writer that brought us Goodfella's did not rediscover his golden touch here. Pileggi started to dip on Casino but this is a disaster. Although he doesn't exactly have De Niro, Liotta, Scorese on tap here. And this is just a TV movie too.
On the plus side - the scenery is nice. Wahlberg tries his best. On the negative side - and there is a lot - Gedrick's character never comes through as believable, Wahlberg must have been told to be the most disgusting person in the world for his character, bad acting from many of the bit players (the Russians come to mind here), some poorly done car chases, a jumpy/chopped script, the wasting of both Bauer and Chavira and many more.
Poor effort - 4/10.
But what is the story exactly? A lot of the film centres around the night club, drinking, smoking. Some parties and doing weights are thrown in but the whole thing doesn't make much sense. Any important events seem to happen off-screen where we - the viewer - have no idea what is going on. The thing becomes too hard to swallow and by the time the little twist (and I mean 'little') comes - we have gone beyond caring.
The writer that brought us Goodfella's did not rediscover his golden touch here. Pileggi started to dip on Casino but this is a disaster. Although he doesn't exactly have De Niro, Liotta, Scorese on tap here. And this is just a TV movie too.
On the plus side - the scenery is nice. Wahlberg tries his best. On the negative side - and there is a lot - Gedrick's character never comes through as believable, Wahlberg must have been told to be the most disgusting person in the world for his character, bad acting from many of the bit players (the Russians come to mind here), some poorly done car chases, a jumpy/chopped script, the wasting of both Bauer and Chavira and many more.
Poor effort - 4/10.
