Sam Jackson is a great actor but I worry about him sometimes.  Some of the roles he has taken lately give one cause to wonder.  Sure, he gets paid well but I wouldn't want to see him burn out his name on junk like
Wesley Snipes has done.  This picture is the type that I'm referring to.  It was a question Mark................. until I saw it.  It was a typical action picture in many ways but it was so fast paced, it was over before
you knew it.  The use of the "F" word and "mother F" word has to be a new world record and the violent deaths came at about four-minute intervals.  And BLOODY!!! 

Sam is Elmo McElroy, who, after graduating with honors from college is arrested THE SAME DAY for drug possession which causes him to give up his dream of being a chemist.  Fast forward thirty years and we find Elmo working for "The Lizard" (Meatloaf) in Los Angeles as his "chemist" making illegal designer drugs.  Well, he hasn't really made them yet but he has come up with this great new formula (#51?) that promises to make them all filthy rich.  At this point, Elmo double-crosses his boss, goes to England and deals directly with Felix DeSouza (Robert Carlyle...The Full Monte), a British buyer that HATES Americans.  Everybody is either killing or double-crossing everybody else!  Add to that Dakota (Emily
Mortimer), a female hitman (person?) hired by The Lizard to "settle up with" Elmo.  Oh, and she is the ex of Felix which REALLY complicates matters.  As you can see, there is a lot going on but it all works itself
out. 

The violence was excessive and the language was a bit much but Sam did well in this "different" role.  This cat wore a KILT through the whole picture.  Now, how many guys can pull THAT off?  A question that I kept
asking was WHY would Sam play a drug maker/dealer?  And why the Kilt and what's UNDER the Kilt?  Though this isn't a great movie it is entertaining and you WILL find the answers to those three questions if
you decide to see it. 

"You're as welcome as a dose of the Clap!" 

RECOMMENDATION:  If you can stand the language and violence AND the fever-fast pace, and the BLOOD and GUTS and BRAINS, you'll like it.  (Ladies, do not, I SAY, DO NOT get up to leave when the credits start at the end!  If you do, YOU'LL BE SORRY!) 

TWO MARGINAL, BLOOD SOAKED, VOMIT-STAINED THUMBS UP!!!  (How do you spell
diarrhea?) 
 

Movie Review © 2002 by Terry Anderson