I found this at the Dollar Tree, it was on a DVD with 10 other action movies. So, basically I paid 10 cents for this movie. So it wasn't bad, for the price.
So, what first struck me was that most of the talking seemed like an audition tape, and it seemed that way because the director decided to set up a camera with some actors in the shot, and then just let them recite dialogue for a few minutes with no cuts. It seems like the first and only take was used each time. I want to fault the actors for their performances, but had the director been less of a "one take wonder" kind of guy, and given the editor something to work with, you could trick the audience into thinking these are good actors. I'm guessing the director figured that the dialogue-heavy moments didn't matter, so he put the camera on a tripod and went to the bathroom.
Also, it seemed like they rented a house, emptied it out, and then used the rooms inside to film all interior scenes. So, there's a scene in a bar, and a scene in a detective's office ... um, I'm having trouble even remembering the movie as I write this, and I just watched it today ... but it seems like they just redecorated the same few rooms to save money. There are more convincing studio sets on Saturday Night Live.
The action scenes, which take place mostly in the last half, seem lively, passionate, and stylish. It seems like there might have been storyboards involved. The performances are more energetic. There actually seems to be multiple camera angles so that the editor can get a good tempo going. The action scenes aren't perfect ... they're not even really good, but they're better than the other stuff in the movie. You can tell that everyone knew that these were the Mkoney Shots that would attract an audience.
The only thing that stood out as "good" in the movie was that the gunshots sound real.
