merklekranz "The Butcher" gets high marks for a high body count, in other words lots of bang bang, but little else. Eric Roberts is his usual dependable quirky self, and it's nice to see Robert Davi and Geoffrey Lewis getting some work. This is however a very shallow movie, with everything revolving around the ultra violent scenes. The whole film has almost zero meaning. Eric Roberts never changes his sport coat throughout the entire movie, and really the movie never changes either. It is nothing more than just another weak plotted shoot em up, with little or no character development. I say avoid unless you need to see a bunch of seldom used actors in a meaningless movie. - MERK

actionfilm-2 Having followed director Jesse V. Johnson's career since 2002's "The Honorable" it's amazing how quickly he has evolved into a top notch action director in such a relatively short period of time. The man has toiled away and paid his dues so it's nice to see his skill is becoming recognized by his peers, allowing him to recruit some great talent. His 2009 film The Butcher slowly builds up momentum towards a brutal action packed finale. It does so skillfully and all the while remained interesting, unlike say for example "The Kingdom" starring Jaime Foxx which had dull dialog and uninteresting characters for three quarters of the film trusting that the final action packed reel would make up for it (as terrific as it was, it did not). The Butcher on the other hand, has barely a fraction of the budget and fires on all cylinders, well scripted, great leads in Eric Roberts and Robert Davi, excellent cast (including several of the director's "stock" actors such as Keith David, Bokeem Woodbine, and even a cameo by the Pitfighter himself Dominiquie Vandenberg), grade A staged action with superb stunt work, one of the best musical scores I've heard in some time, even a beautiful Dodge Charger and eclectic mix of firearms. Recommended!

tcarvelo14 This is a world of granite faced crusty badass mothers! These guys aren't pretty, in fact nobody in this movie is pretty. But they are tough, and what they lack in looks they more than make up for in ferocity of action.Robert davi is fantastic as the pock marked faced lee j. cobb mob boss, he doesn't like Earl, Eric Roberts' character, but like all the people in this movie they don't give away what they're thinking or who they like, or even what side they're on, and when the chips are down and they're in trouble, they all offer to join the other team to save their bacon, anyway. The only character with any real shred of discernible decency at all is Eric Roberts, and he is at the losing end of a run of seriously bad luck - see the movie.This film was constructed strangely, it was really slow, and it bugged me a bit, then I realized I really enjoyed the slow build up, because, brother let me tell you, when this movie goes bang, it takes large gruesome fragments of the san fernando valley with it. In glorious old school no CG style. The guns are real and sound real, the guts and splatter seems gruesomely real, too.I don't normally write on these boards, most people with the time to write don't share my opinion anyway. But a complete miscreant made a comment about the guns, I had a sudden flash of wanting to use a 1897 shot gun to flatten his head, like Earl does in the movie. The firearms in this movie are cool, there are no modern guns at all, they are all beat up old collectors items (like the characters, i guess), the gun in the stripclub is a Browning 1919 BTW, wasn't in WW1 at all, and no bayonet on it, - but like I said, I'm as pathetic as him for getting annoyed about his review.This film is uncompromising and fresh, the style is gritty and almost messy, Eric Roberts is stand alone, a fantastic actor, and Davi battles him good for the scenery chewing awards. Michael ironside gives a small speech on gangster etiquette at the beginning and I can now quote it verbatim, it's a small part but it stays with you!earl's car deserved it's own credit in the titles, as it's a character unto itself.The bottom line. As i watched this film, it felt interesting and new, but a little slow getting to it's point, then the shooting happened and a divine light came over me and it all made sense. I have watched it three more times and most assuredly get it now.This is a blistering individual film, a head and shoulders above most of the steamy crXp in the theater. This film isn't about the plot, or the suspense or any of that stuff, it's about the characters and the world they live in and boy i enjoyed it.Terry. C.

nathan-yeo I like British gangster films over American ones especially urban they're all feeling sorry for some gangster who's trying to get out of the business. Our boy here isn't trying to get out of the business, well he wasn't until a quarter million dollars landed at his feet. now he wants to grab the waitress and take it on the road. only problem is he stole money from his mob, that was stolen from the mafia. So now everyone wants him dead. the characters were believable, a lil more Micheal ironside would have helped.They stole a lot of stuff from several all-rite gangster films to make a mediocre gangster film. There was some "Saving Grace", the reflection and repose of "Boiling Point" and then they tried to add in some John WOO type shoot-outs.Here's a problem, who ever did this had too much pull with the props department, mobsters, and gangsters, don't have gunfights with "Bayonet Fixed, Belt-Fed" weapons. He even shot-up a bar carrying a WWI era 30cal machine gun.