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Street Date: March 18
Official Synopsis:
Director Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels) brings you this no holds barred urban, crime-thriller featuring an all-star cast of gangster movie icons including Jason Statham (London, Collateral), Ray Liotta (Goodfellas, John Q), Vincent Pastore (Made, TV's The Sopranos) and Outkast's André Benjamin (Idlewild, Four Brothers). Jake Green is a hotshot gambler, long on audacity and short on common sense. He's rarely allowed to play in any casino because he is a winner and has taken in so much money over the years. He is the only client of his accountant and older brother Billy. One night, Jake, Billy and their other brother Joe are invited to sit in on a private game, where Jake is expected to lose to Dorothy Macha, a crime boss and local casino owner who can't play for squat, but always wins because people are too scared to beat him. Jake isn't afraid of Macha, and not only beats Dorothy in a quick game of chance, but takes every possible opportunity to insult the man. Jake and his brothers leave the game, and Macha puts out the order for a hit on Jake, who ends up working for and being protected by a pair of brothers, Avi and Zack, who are out to take Macha down.
Our Take:
I’m sitting here, after my first viewing of Revolver and I’m trying to figure out what everyone was complaining about. Did audiences really have as tough a time deciphering this movie as the Internet is leading me to believe? Do people really not understand what Guy Ritchie has at play here? I don’t really know, but if it that’s the case, it’s their loss.
You can’t talk about a movie with Jason Statham in it and then not discuss what an awesome badass he is. What’s even better here is that he’s gone ahead and grown a handlebar moustache with a surrounding, yet lighter, beard (albeit darker than the permanent 5 o’clock shadow he rocks in every other movie he’s in). It’s a completely different look for him. And while on the topic of Statham, I would also like to give him some major congratulations for turning in his best performance to date. His character, Jake Green, is a tough guy with a lot of psychological baggage going on and Statham tackles the role perfectly.
Revolver is Guy Ritchie’s apology to his fans (although I didn’t really need an apology from him since I thought Swept Away was kind of a bad-ass romance film in its own right and I’m not really sure why everyone complained about that one either) as he comes back to the genre that made him famous. Except it’s not really just a crime movie anymore – it’s evolved into something much deeper and darker. Something that isn’t so concerned with big heists but rather with characters and the different layers that make these characters. Very cool.
The disc is a lot nicer than one would expect from a movie that was dumped (unrightfully) direct to DVD:
* Outtakes (4 minutes) – You get to see that a lot of green screen work went into this.
* The Game: The Making Of Revolver (24 minutes) – Breakdowns of the characters, the look, and the feel of the film.
* Revolver: Making The Music (14 minutes).
* The Concept: An Interview with Writer/Director Guy Ritchie and Editor James Herbert (16 minutes) – Just awesome.
If you simply watch this movie and reads the few title cards that come up along the way, you’ll have the story spelled out to you. Ego is a huge factor here; keep the egos of the characters in mind and you will know what you need to know. The only other thing you need to know is that Revolver comes…
RECOMMENDED!
Overall Picture:
Movie: B+
DVD: A-
- Landen Chase Pelish
Staff Writer
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