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Most helpful customer reviews
By Robert Badgley
TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:DVD
Catch 44(released Dec/11)stars Bruce Willis as Mel,Forest Whitaker as Ronny,Malin Åkerman as Tes,Deborah Ann Woll as Dawn,Nikki Reed as Kara,and others in this tight little mix-it-up filmed in Louisiana.The film certainly betrays its low budget roots(most of the action takes place in side somewhere;a definite sign),but the production staff ends up pulling off what I think is a decent enough thriller/drama within the confines of its restrictions.
The story involves the boss Bruce Willis and his right hand man Forest Whitaker.Malin is a waitress in a dump of a strip club Willis runs,and Whitaker has a crush on her.She had been angling for a chance to meet the head man and finally gets it.After the meeting Willis hires her to do jobs for him.Malin hires two other girls,Woll and Reed,as her assistants.They mess up one job and move on to an interception of some drug money at a remote diner.They sit in the diner and the rendezvous time comes and goes.
At just after 3AM they get up and hold at gunpoint all the patrons and demanding to know where the truck is.After the dust settles both of Malin`s associates are dead and she is in a Mexican standoff with the cook,who also happens to work for Willis.In walks Whitaker who has been prowling the town and its environs for the last few hours.He killed a cop and had been riding in his car.He also had pulled over Malin and her friends earlier,but she didn`t recognize him.It seems she only met Whitaker for about 15 minutes when he originally took her to see the boss many years before.Now Whitaker is telling Malin he loves her and wants her to shoot the cook.She balks once but finally gets up enough nerve to shoot.As she suddenly turns towards Whitaker(we saw that coming a mile away!),the camera pulls outside.
Later,Willis finally arrives and finds the diner littered with bodies.He sits down in a booth,loaded gun on the table,across from Whitaker,who is bleeding from his left ear area.The movie up to this point had been plot jumping;reach one stage,jump back to explain events up to that point,go ahead a bit more and jump back to explain that,and so on.Well,this is the place where the movie initially came in.Willis tells Whitaker a parable about Running Bear,then after all is said and done,he shoots him dead.Before he leaves he puts the song of Running Bear(Johnny Preston)on the jukebox.As Willis is about to exit he hears the click of a trigger and looks around.Malin is still alive,and she shoots him.The camera leaps outside to Willis` chauffeur who hears two shots ring out.As he gets out of the car,gun in hand,Malin is there to disarm him and off she rides with the drug money on the seat beside her.
Willis plays his part well,as does Whitaker,who plays a psychotic,with multiple personalities beautifully.Everyone else does a good job also on the acting front.The film itself is done well,but there is just nothing here to suggest the wow factor.It goes along at a good clip,is executed nicely,but I just couldn`t see anything else in it that would make me give it any more marks than I did.
Technically the film is in its w/s a/r of 2:40:1 and is clear and crisp.The only extras are the trailer and some commentary.
All in all a decent enough thriller that is raised to a better level thanks to the performances of its main stars Willis and Whitaker.The rest of the cast does fine work also,but it isn`t enough to get this film any higher than 3 stars.
The story involves the boss Bruce Willis and his right hand man Forest Whitaker.Malin is a waitress in a dump of a strip club Willis runs,and Whitaker has a crush on her.She had been angling for a chance to meet the head man and finally gets it.After the meeting Willis hires her to do jobs for him.Malin hires two other girls,Woll and Reed,as her assistants.They mess up one job and move on to an interception of some drug money at a remote diner.They sit in the diner and the rendezvous time comes and goes.
At just after 3AM they get up and hold at gunpoint all the patrons and demanding to know where the truck is.After the dust settles both of Malin`s associates are dead and she is in a Mexican standoff with the cook,who also happens to work for Willis.In walks Whitaker who has been prowling the town and its environs for the last few hours.He killed a cop and had been riding in his car.He also had pulled over Malin and her friends earlier,but she didn`t recognize him.It seems she only met Whitaker for about 15 minutes when he originally took her to see the boss many years before.Now Whitaker is telling Malin he loves her and wants her to shoot the cook.She balks once but finally gets up enough nerve to shoot.As she suddenly turns towards Whitaker(we saw that coming a mile away!),the camera pulls outside.
Later,Willis finally arrives and finds the diner littered with bodies.He sits down in a booth,loaded gun on the table,across from Whitaker,who is bleeding from his left ear area.The movie up to this point had been plot jumping;reach one stage,jump back to explain events up to that point,go ahead a bit more and jump back to explain that,and so on.Well,this is the place where the movie initially came in.Willis tells Whitaker a parable about Running Bear,then after all is said and done,he shoots him dead.Before he leaves he puts the song of Running Bear(Johnny Preston)on the jukebox.As Willis is about to exit he hears the click of a trigger and looks around.Malin is still alive,and she shoots him.The camera leaps outside to Willis` chauffeur who hears two shots ring out.As he gets out of the car,gun in hand,Malin is there to disarm him and off she rides with the drug money on the seat beside her.
Willis plays his part well,as does Whitaker,who plays a psychotic,with multiple personalities beautifully.Everyone else does a good job also on the acting front.The film itself is done well,but there is just nothing here to suggest the wow factor.It goes along at a good clip,is executed nicely,but I just couldn`t see anything else in it that would make me give it any more marks than I did.
Technically the film is in its w/s a/r of 2:40:1 and is clear and crisp.The only extras are the trailer and some commentary.
All in all a decent enough thriller that is raised to a better level thanks to the performances of its main stars Willis and Whitaker.The rest of the cast does fine work also,but it isn`t enough to get this film any higher than 3 stars.
By Charles Dimov
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:DVD
Three and a half stars is really what this one is worth.
Great concept of telling the story by jumping back to early scenes and retelling it with a slightly different angle, with a bit more information each time.
I loved the poetic closure - that the movie starts on a bewildering scene, and ends on the same scene - but the viewer ends off understanding how we got to the opening scene.
If you are averse to violence - STAY AWAY. This is in the genre of Pulp Fiction - with almost as much swearing and violence.
Certainly a disturbing, yet fascinating piece.
Worth watching - just for the afterthought and discussions.
Great concept of telling the story by jumping back to early scenes and retelling it with a slightly different angle, with a bit more information each time.
I loved the poetic closure - that the movie starts on a bewildering scene, and ends on the same scene - but the viewer ends off understanding how we got to the opening scene.
If you are averse to violence - STAY AWAY. This is in the genre of Pulp Fiction - with almost as much swearing and violence.
Certainly a disturbing, yet fascinating piece.
Worth watching - just for the afterthought and discussions.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2.0 out of 5 stars
90 reviews
22 of 28 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Another Disciple Trapped In The Church Of Tarantino: A Solid Film That Lacks An Original Voice
Dec 9 2011
By K. Harris
- Published on Amazon.com
I had heard and read so many scathingly critical comments flung at writer/director Aaron Harvey's "Catch .44" that I was convinced it must surely be a disaster of epic proportion. I'm not sure what anyone else anticipates when sitting down to a straight-to-DVD endeavor, but my expectations tend to run fairly low. Thus, I was actually pleasantly surprised by this film. I found it quite entertaining in its own right with a number of noteworthy performances. Harvey shows a deft hand when handling dialogue and that ends up being a saving grace to the movie. My fundamental issue with the production has little to do with entertainment value and almost everything to do with originality. Like so many young filmmakers, Harvey clearly aspires to be the next Tarantino (and why not?), but "Catch .44" is so derivative that it begs to be judged in an unfavorable light. Even the DVD packaging references the sublime "Reservoir Dogs." I could forgive the similarities in structure and theme such as the chronologically scrambled narrative, overlapping timelines, the eclectic assortment of outlaws, and the clever/cool conversations that have little to do with the plot. But from moment to moment, every sequence in the film seems to have been lifted from another movie and cobbled together. Seriously. For every individual scene, I could name a comparable scene that served the same purpose from an earlier and similar movie.
Taking that out of the equation for a moment, I actually thought the film was successful enough. Despite the presence of Bruce Willis in a minor role (though you'd never guess that from his huge head on the DVD cover), the actual lead of "Catch. 44" is up-and-comer Malin Akerman. Akerman plays a former strip club hostess and pickpocket who was drafted into a larger criminal enterprise by Willis. She and two gal pals (including True Blood's Deborah Ann Woll) have a late night assignment at a rural diner where the score looks to be a load of drugs and cash. But, as you might guess, things don't go exactly to plan and the story shifts into flashbacks to see how we arrived at this point. Forest Whitaker and his numerous accents are on hand, as well, as an enigmatic and dangerous stranger. Before the night is over, the diner will host a series of confrontations and it remains to be seen if anyone will be left unscathed. It's all fun and amusing with appropriate twists and turns, I just felt like I'd seen it all before.
The cast is actually quite good. In general, I really like Akerman who is known largely for her comedic work (various romantic comedies, TV's The Comeback, the fantastic Childrens Hospital, Funny or Die Presents...) as well as her sultry turn in "Watchmen." Here, she displays a toughness that is unexpected and believable. Never heard of her? She's got some high-profile pictures in the offing including the adaptation of Broadways "Rock of Ages" and the biopic of porn star Linda Lovelace in which she is the lead. Whitaker seems to be having a good time as the unstable powder keg who somehow fits into the plot puzzle. Looking for Willis, though? He's got a couple of scenes and is amusing enough as the standard crime boss oddball. The girls actually listen to a Bruce Willis song from the eighties and mention the actor by name, but the gag ends up being a bit too jokey for my taste. Clearly Harvey has an ear and can write, he just needs to develop his own voice. But for now, "Catch .44" ends up being another in a long line of Tarantino wannabes, although a reasonably entertaining one. KGHarris, 12/11.
Taking that out of the equation for a moment, I actually thought the film was successful enough. Despite the presence of Bruce Willis in a minor role (though you'd never guess that from his huge head on the DVD cover), the actual lead of "Catch. 44" is up-and-comer Malin Akerman. Akerman plays a former strip club hostess and pickpocket who was drafted into a larger criminal enterprise by Willis. She and two gal pals (including True Blood's Deborah Ann Woll) have a late night assignment at a rural diner where the score looks to be a load of drugs and cash. But, as you might guess, things don't go exactly to plan and the story shifts into flashbacks to see how we arrived at this point. Forest Whitaker and his numerous accents are on hand, as well, as an enigmatic and dangerous stranger. Before the night is over, the diner will host a series of confrontations and it remains to be seen if anyone will be left unscathed. It's all fun and amusing with appropriate twists and turns, I just felt like I'd seen it all before.
The cast is actually quite good. In general, I really like Akerman who is known largely for her comedic work (various romantic comedies, TV's The Comeback, the fantastic Childrens Hospital, Funny or Die Presents...) as well as her sultry turn in "Watchmen." Here, she displays a toughness that is unexpected and believable. Never heard of her? She's got some high-profile pictures in the offing including the adaptation of Broadways "Rock of Ages" and the biopic of porn star Linda Lovelace in which she is the lead. Whitaker seems to be having a good time as the unstable powder keg who somehow fits into the plot puzzle. Looking for Willis, though? He's got a couple of scenes and is amusing enough as the standard crime boss oddball. The girls actually listen to a Bruce Willis song from the eighties and mention the actor by name, but the gag ends up being a bit too jokey for my taste. Clearly Harvey has an ear and can write, he just needs to develop his own voice. But for now, "Catch .44" ends up being another in a long line of Tarantino wannabes, although a reasonably entertaining one. KGHarris, 12/11.
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Pass
Dec 26 2011
By Grady Harp
- Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Vine™ Review
CATCH .44 is a dark, slow moving, thuddingly dull film. Written and Directed with Aaron Harvey it is a film borrowed from so many previous movies about drug dealing, double crossing, attempts at being clever without success, and near constant killing (no, slaughter by gunfire would be a more appropriate word.
The basically behind the scenes Mel (Bruce Willis, who appears to need a new agent to get some appropriate new material for him to chew) sets up a drug interception using three girls with whom he has successfully worked before - Tes (Malin Ackerman), Dawn (Deborah Ann Woll) and Kara (Nikki Reed) - this time making the interception at a diner in the middle of nowhere. Of course there is a lot of girl talk about their mission, an interruption by a madman Ronny (Forest Whitaker) who earlier has murdered a sheriff and poses then as the sheriff to add to the mess. At the diner things just progress from bad to unbelievable, as nearly everyone is brutally murdered and it all ends in a reduced cast (many are dead by now) cat and mouse game that is as dull as yesterday's lunch.
There are some night at the gas station scenes a la Ed Ruscha by cinematographer Jeff Cutter that are artsy, but the rest of the film is a waste of talent. It makes us wonder how tough it is for actors of the caliber of Forest Whitaker and Bruce Willis to turn up some worthwhile material that takes advantage of their skills instead of these blood bath bores they seem to be accepting as scripts. No real saving graces to this film. Grady Harp, December 11
The basically behind the scenes Mel (Bruce Willis, who appears to need a new agent to get some appropriate new material for him to chew) sets up a drug interception using three girls with whom he has successfully worked before - Tes (Malin Ackerman), Dawn (Deborah Ann Woll) and Kara (Nikki Reed) - this time making the interception at a diner in the middle of nowhere. Of course there is a lot of girl talk about their mission, an interruption by a madman Ronny (Forest Whitaker) who earlier has murdered a sheriff and poses then as the sheriff to add to the mess. At the diner things just progress from bad to unbelievable, as nearly everyone is brutally murdered and it all ends in a reduced cast (many are dead by now) cat and mouse game that is as dull as yesterday's lunch.
There are some night at the gas station scenes a la Ed Ruscha by cinematographer Jeff Cutter that are artsy, but the rest of the film is a waste of talent. It makes us wonder how tough it is for actors of the caliber of Forest Whitaker and Bruce Willis to turn up some worthwhile material that takes advantage of their skills instead of these blood bath bores they seem to be accepting as scripts. No real saving graces to this film. Grady Harp, December 11
20 of 26 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
A very entertaining action mystery in the vein of "Pulp Fiction". Nothing outstanding but still very much worth seeing. I say B+
Dec 4 2011
By Tony Heck
- Published on Amazon.com
"I worked with you for seven years...always liked you, always looked after you, but I never trusted you." Tess (Akerman) and her friends have one simple task. Meet a trucker at a restaurant and take the truck from him. Things do not go as planned and secrets begin to come out, as well as bullets. This movie was a surprise. After watching "Set-up" with Bruce Willis (who was in it for about 5 minutes) I was skeptical. While he is not the main star in this one either this one actually is a pretty good movie. This movie reminded me a lot of "Pulp Fiction" in the way that it jumps back and forth all the time until you have every part of the story. Akerman and Whitaker do a great job in this and for someone like Malin Akerman to take a role in an action movie and pull it off as good as she does is also a surprise. While not a top notch action movie this one is still very much worth while and will not let you down. Overall, a very good movie that is well worth your time. I give it a B+.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
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