wwwkeh My wife and I watched this movie New Year's Eve day. This action movie seems to start slowly. Mark Bierleim portrays Bryan, an average Joe who muddles along as an insurance fraud investigator. Mena Suvari plays bartender, Heather, whom Bryan charms after playing the incredible piano music of Chopin. After being yelled at, chased, and later shot at, Bryan decides to quit the insurance fraud business. His boss drugs him and he finds himself chained on a pier with some bad guys who toss him into Lake Michigan. A year passes in which the people Bryan had investigated are killed and he is implicated in their deaths.Crime novelist, Alex Forester, shows up researching the book he is writing on Bryan's murdering these people. Everyone he talks to ends up mysteriously dying and the film quickly becomes fast-paced and interesting. Tom Arnold plays Alex's neighbor, a sweet, nervous, too-talkative retired marine who is always in the way. The movie ends with an unforeseen twist. While researching this movie online, I discovered it cost only $2.5 million to make. The cinematography was a little shadowy, but my wife liked it and the Midwestern setting lent it familiarity. All-in-all, we enjoyed this fast-paced (after a slow start) movie.

Jeffrey Lee Greatfully NO CG. Realistic. Unpredictable. Likable Characters. It was more surreal that real, but what do you expect--it was Detroit. It was not overly verbose. I don't expect it to get an Academy mention. Well written, acted, and filmed. Original and entertaining. Direction and cutting were crisp - did not leave any gaps The pace was perfect. The ending was perfect. Camera work was not distracting - no typical chase scene. Had a lot of context. Lots of wide shots - little character lock- in which gave it sense of reality. Not a lot of foul language. Loose ends were knit together at the end. Not a lot of blood. Nobody could have been offended watching the movie. Fun to cheer the white hats and boo the black hats.

lautanner The man who produced and starred in this film is a joke. He took decent actors (Et Tu, Bill Sadler?) and gave them some terrible lines to read. Then he had the audacity to put himself in the lead when he has no talent. There are PLENTY of better actors in Michigan than him. But instead of caring about the CRAFT of film-making, he just wanted to fulfill his fantasy of having Mena Suvari play his girlfriend. Mark, when Tom Arnold out-acts you, you need to WISE UP. I am begging you to stop making films. Seriously, your money could be spent on something so much better. Everything about this film is horrible: the special effects, the "action," the cinematography, and the music. The best you can hope for is that the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 crew will get a hold of this and give it the thrashing that it deserves.

innocuous I never thought I'd be saying this, but Tom Arnold completely out-acts everybody else in this movie. This includes Sadler and Suvari, who are simply outclassed.But I'm willing to accept that all the B-list actors just needed a paycheck, and that Bierlin needed a vanity project. What I can't handle is that, like many of the scripts nowadays, this is just so poorly and incomprehensibly written. Bierlin continuously paints himself into corners and then introduces some ridiculous plot turn or event to get his characters free.Not recommended.