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DVD Westbrick Murders
 Run time: 90 min Rating: 2.7 Genres: Action | Crime | Thriller Director: Shaun Rana Writers: Shaun Rana Stars: Daniell Edwards, Sami Darr, Anna Bård |
| Storyline The town of Westbrick is a rough place to live in. It is here that the young rookie cop Matthew lives with his wife. Meanwhile, notorious serial killers Billy and Barbara embark on a killing spree in order to get notoriety. Matthew gets his first assignment with his much older partner William when he unfortunately crosses paths with Billy and Barbara. William gets killed in the line of duty by Billy and Barbara but that’s not enough for them: they torture and brutally murder Matthew’s wife. Things get even worse for young Matthew when he loses his job, being wrongfully blamed for William’s death and now charged with murder. Matthew finds himself isolated; there is no reason to count on a corrupt legal system and even less of a chance of being found innocent. He goes on a rampage for vengeance and slowly turns into a mad psychopath just like Billy and Barbara. Written by Melany Denise |
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| Details: Country: Denmark, UK, USA Release Date: 11 May 2010 (USA) |
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| Box Office Budget: $3,000,000 (estimated) |
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4 comments
This movie makes no apologies for what it wants to be. It says right on the box art it's "Sin City Meets The Spirit". Predictanly it fails at both, but much more at being Sin City than The Spirit. Sure, Sin City had the visuals, but it also had a pretty compelling story line, even if it was a bit of a film noir wannabe. The Spirit had the visuals and…well…that's about it. Pretty much everything else was terrible.
Westbrick Murders follows a cop who basically loses everything and vows justice. Well, OK, he doesn't really vow justice. He's kind of guilted into it by his overbearing but wise father (a glorified cameo by Eric Roberts). I don't know about you, but if my spouse was murdered by a couple of serial killers (and I was a cop) my first instinct would not be to run home to daddy so he could tell me to man up and deal with it. This film fails on a lot more levels than story and really it's kind of sad. If a cameo by Eric Roberts is the best you can muster, it's better to just count your losses and walk away. But this film doesn't. It uses cheap effects and horribly annoying jumpy edits to try and make it feel gritty and quick. Even at that it fails miserably as you soon get tired of the visual failure and start to notice what utter crap the story is. I'm not here to defend Frank Miller's movies at all (some at a total waste of time), but even he did so much better than this pathetic copy that it's almost embarrassing.
Ditch this nonsense and don't get tricked by it's cover.
I think that with this movie the director really tried to make a hybrid version of "Natural Born Killers", "Sin City" and "The Crow" and he almost did it. The story while not too original still manages to keep you interested and the same can be said for the cinematography, the animation sequences, the camera work and the dialogue.
Unfortunately though I think the place where this movie really falls down hard is the quality of the acting. Sami Darr as Billy deserves a special mention in this category. He was trying so hard to be menacing and unpredictable like Woody Harrelson did as Mickey Knox but he came across about as scary as Mickey Mouse by comparison.
Overall it was a nice effort with some very good ideas (Such as the long travelling shot where the camera takes us flying through the city scape, passing through windows and keyholes along the way) but ultimately it's a very disappointing experience.
What a waste. Such good photography and arty images. Even the accompanying music is creative. But, the dialog and the overacting of the characters spoiled the film. The form is great and enduring and macabre and memorable, but the dialog is shallow and infantile. The story: A couple going on a shooting spree and an unjustly disgraced rookie cop going after them. OK, so far. What is unbelievable is policemen turning on a good rookie police officer who had recently lost his partner and wife, while going by the book. Come on, give me a break. Who can believe that! The characters are flimsy, cartoon like. A lawyer and a news anchor woman wearing black vinyl gloves. A hillbilly cameraman chewing tobacco and spitting on a hospital floor. Only Eric Roberts is true to form: Good solid acting. It feels like a cheap imitation of Sin City. The movie seems to be directed by a kid with the only culture and education of video games. All in all, what a waste!
I see what they were trying to do, I applaud them for trying and completing but I didn't like it. They took the cinema trick from Sin City and The Spirit, add in some film noire and you have a uniformed officer and trench coat wearing detective try to catch a Bonnie and Clyde, Mickey and Mallory spree killer couple. I watched it for past a half hour, especially after I usually shut a movie off after the first CGI gunfight which there was a lot of it this movie. The couple kill the uniforms partner a minute after they get paired up, they don't leave town but decide to take on all comers. The rest of the movie is the cop and detective getting in each others faces not trusting and plotting on each other.