DVD The Bannen Way

This movie is a nightmarish amalgamation of hackneyed premises too numerous to list in their entirety, but here are a few: Our hero/anti-hero is a slick charmer who's indebted to several crime bosses at once, coordinates elaborate plans to do the impossible with the help of his computer geek sidekick/guardian angel, sleeps with lots of women and narrowly avoids getting killed by some of them, and of course the cops want him too.

This film would've at least been a neatly-packaged directorial debut had it stuck to all that, but it got greedy: On top of all those other clichés, we then get a twist wherein we learn that nothing was what it seemed. That's when I started getting antsy, wishing the movie would end, which is never a good sign.

Some movies get made because someone has an idea and wants to see it come to life. Then there are the pictures that get made because someone with the right resources decided they simply wanted to make a movie, so they proceed to try and formulate some sort of film by borrowing elements that have proved successful in other films. This is one of the latter, and the result in this case is bland, mild entertainment, at best.

Nevertheless, I get the feeling that everyone involved has the talent, even if the drive is missing. As The Oracle would say, "You've got the gift, but it looks like you're waiting for something". The film is shot with an unoriginal yet well-executed style. The same staff/cast with a decent idea that everyone actually cared about could probably pull off a respectable movie. This unfortunately wasn't it.

A slick, sexy, action-packed show about Neal Bannen, a charming con-man with a police chief for a father, a mob boss for an uncle and a weakness for beautiful women, who wants to turn his life around and leave the criminal lifestyle forever. Let me get this off my chest right off the bat. A huge problem I have with these web series watched on Crackle is that you're forced to watch about 90 seconds of ads before you watch the 6 minute show. And let's not forget that the titles are at least 30 seconds, maybe a minute. What becomes worse is that once you get the pilot behind you, these bozos add about another minute to 90 seconds of flashbacks for each episode because they think you son't remember what happens in 5 minutes of footage you just watched! Oh, and there's another minute of titles at the end. So the actual programming is about 4 minutes or less. It's so annoying. OK, on with the review. Truth is, there is nothing special about this show. It follows the same boring tired format that all these shows want to follow.

Pretentious lady's man gets in and out of trouble. Lots of narration to explain the plot because the producers think we're too stoned to understand. I'd rather they not make this trash than waste out time. This show is no better or worse than any of the others. And that's not saying much. Hint: when you try so hard to be kewl, it just means you're not kewl.