chaos-rampant I was expecting straight-to-video fodder here the kind you watch stupefied because it happened to be on late at night. It revealed itself to be a taut little thing that tries to create its own world.It was caught in the Tarantino craze so we have small talk about cartoons, movies and music peppered throughout. It has, eventually, a heist in animal masks gone awry that makes poor sense and cookie cutter resolutions where we drive around to settle scores with a bunch of characters that were left hanging so that it's all neat by the end.For a while it manages to strike some spark, most of it in the first half.A man who we understand is trying to be upstanding while everyone around him is fickle, but he has a blind spot for gambling. It's not about the money, for him it seems to be a warped way of measuring himself up against the universe, challenging the fates to pave whatever way they have in store so he can have a mandate to abide by. He makes a mess, owing everyone in town, but won't take the easy way out because a bet is a bet; opportunity for self-worth. So when the fates shuffle the deck and he's dealt the role of hapless stooge who loses everything, he goes through it with stoic persistence to settle debts. Ray Liotta is as good as he was for Scorsese in a similar twitchy role as fates conspire to crush him.It's no Asphalt Jungle where the heist is the ritual that opens us from anxiety to dreamlike visions, but it beats Reservoir Dogs.Noir Meter: 2/4 | Neo-noir or post noir? Neo

elshikh4 Ray Liotta, who produced it too, sure was trying to utilize his success as the lead of (Goodfellas) once. So why not to regain that by another crime movie, especially while no one gave him a starring role in a big movie ever since. The character that he handed over to himself was different and inspiring. That superstitious, lousy gambler, policeman who gambles for gambling, and refuses to be as corrupted as his colleagues could have been something great.. but in another movie. Because with this treatment its beauty lost. He seems special but with nothing there to explore. And his details are interesting but not in interesting conflict. Hence I learned nothing about his reality. But who said anything about exploring, learning and reality in this movie ?!!!!!!! It should have been called (Sex, Violence, and The Gambler Cop). The movie's aim was just entertaining sex and violence all the time WITH NOTHING MORE! Things like the loaner guy and his lisper-too-cartoonish-speech, the unstoppable killings at the heist, Daniel Baldwin surrendering to the police force then LaPaglia killing him in front of them, the twist of the chef of police, or the finale where Liotta killed the loaner and his 2 henchmen... all of that push me to ask which was more laughable ?! Well, I know for a fact that any attempt to describe this movie as a sleeper gem is the unfunny farce!Though, put these pieces together, and you'll find yourself in front of another mindless movie which looks like Hollywood burnished stuff, however resembles in its core any violent "V" crap you have ever seen. So no solace for the good directing I suppose. Actually (Danny Cannon) is so unlucky fine director. This man knows his tools well. He can create a fine atmosphere, a sweaty image, and a charming action. But regarding his career; whether he got bad scripts, or he got a taste for them !I couldn't stand (Anjelica Huston) as the love interest. Aside from being too unattractive for me, there was no existence of even one atom of chemistry between her and (Liotta). Plus being too old beside him as well, unless his character was having unspoken thing for older women (older unattractive ones !). I couldn't understand the King Kong reference also. Was it a hint that Liotta is a man who thinks too much, weighs everything by objective logic while his being as superstitious, taking these very superstitions as logical? Or was it part of the pointless dialog in the crime movies after Pulp Fiction anyway?! Or was it me thinking too much in pointless pulp ??!And to top it all that catchy, so allegedly serious, title; Phoenix !!?? As if the movie was some reading to a whole society !! It represents perfectly this movie's desire to be something it isn't, and it wouldn't. Yet even if; what did it say about the WORLD of that Phoenix ? That all the policemen are decayed. Their boss is more decayed yet smarter. And the solution of crime is another crime. So we live a hell of unmerciful killers and robbers where love and justice are unachieved. It's maybe highly bitter and melancholic reading (that fits a good noir), or just the pure B-movie which drawls with that. The absurd blood rivers in the end answer it frankly. So it's a sad elegy for the world, that needs an elegy itself, for being nothing but unrealistic, totally bloody, and so silly crime movie.In (Chicago) the name worked. In other movies like (Edison) and (Phoenix) it didn't. Stop calling your movies with names of cities to feign a deep point of view and trick some reviewers. Ahhh. The mindless movie that alleges a mind is the worst kind! Finally, if you wanna enjoy, remember : "don't f**k a friend" rule, Liotta's belief in superstitions, LaPaglia beating and killing anybody he doesn't like, and truly.. Brittany Murphy's sexy presence back when her hair was black. Hmmm.. That's about all !

James Gawne Having grown up in Phoenix, I was fairly surprised to find that there was a police drama that had been set and partially filmed there. I looked into it a little, and found out that it had a fairly good cast, too - Ray Liotta, Anthony LaPaglia, Jeremy Piven, Tom Noonan, Anjelica Huston, Brittany Murphy, Stephen Baldwin. Baldwin actually turns in a decent performance - not the standard for one of the Baldwin brothers. Liotta is great as a crooked cop, though not nearly as good as he is in "Narc." Piven does quite well as the naïve cuckolded cop. LaPaglia and Noonan's performances are probably the best of the film, though. Noonan turns in an even creepier performance here than he does in "Knockaround Guys", and LaPaglia's corrupt-beyond-all-belief Detective Henshaw is practically the polar opposite of the straightforward good guys he plays in movies like "So I Married An Axe Murderer" and "Empire Records". I paid six bucks to pick this up on DVD at a used record place in Santa Monica, and it was worth every dime. If you can rent it, see it on late night, or whatever, I would recommend doing so.

Replikant I never heard of this movie before and caught it by chance late at night on cable TV. I, like everyone else is writing in his comments, was surprised at how well the characters were developed and how exciting the whole movie was. Of course it had some minor flaws, but overall the plot was gripping and the acting was top notch. If you have the chance to grab it on DVD, do not miss this one out. It is way better than the more infamous and similar "Copland" and, besides "Goodfellas", is one of Ray Liotta's best. Don't let the rating fool you, if it had been advertised better, it probably would have an overall rating of 7.5/10.