The Heavy

Moviecut—The Heavy

THE HEAVY is an appalling slice of British gangster trash in a genre well known for putting out dog after dog. Most ones made a decade ago weren't this bad though, so this one must be an exception. Gary Stretch destroys any reputation he built up with DEAD MAN'S SHOES by delivering an awful performance that's all over the place as the taciturn protagonist who finds himself tasked with an impossible job and challenged by underworld figures. With awful production values, writing and direction, this is only of interest for seeing big names in small roles; why the likes of Sadie Frost, Stephen Rea and Geoff Bell decided to show up I have no idea. Vinnie Jones reprises his hardman schtick we all know well while the late, great Christopher Lee is somewhat unbelievably cast as Stretch's dad. I'm guessing the apple fell a long way from the tree here! Watch out for the awful 'bullet time' style shoot-out at the climax, so cheesy it has to be seen to be believed...

It speaks volumes that the ancient Christopher Lee and lumbering Vinnie Jones turn in the best performances in this movie; it sounded like a first read-through. The twist was predictable, the script leaden. I really do not know what kind of critical scrutiny failed to stop it being made. The gangsters wouldn't scare my mum, the rogue cop was just a caricature. BTW, re; review above..... Boots was asked by the doctor to submit to tissue typing in order to give a non-fatal bone-marrow transplant to his brother. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz................

This film actually fascinated me. The cast are quite a mixed bunch and from all acting backgrounds. I was amazed to see Lee Ryan i had to do a double take but I thought his character was great and he played it well. Vinnie Jones always adds a threatening presence to the screen but this time it is on the right side of the law.Gary Stretch just plays it cool . To summarise this up this is not your standard action film At first i struggled with the film, but after watching it all the way through realise that it has its own type of style "in a good way" and the music suits the film.Itseems to be like the European type hit men films. Christopher Lee and Jean Marsh add some heavy names to the cast but to be honest are not on screen long enough to shine. My advice give it a chance and enjoy watching some good British actors working together.

The whole movie is circled around two brothers. Christian Mason , a prime candidate for Prime Minister and the other one ,Mitchell mason , who has been cheated by his own family and sent to jail . The plot is not that much strong . Still good enough to get poised into it . Vinnie Jones , the detective , was superb . I am huge fan of him . It is actually about the life of two brothers . Christian was sent to jail because he murdered the man he caught her wife sleeping with . But his own brother stood against him and sent him to jail. And then Christian was bailed from Ranawalt who thereby got him a job which was perfect for him to take a revenge . And in the end , He got it. The movie was good . i still think that it could have been a little better . All in all , i would rate it 6.

I had high hopes for this movie. The plot was a man out of jail working as a debt collector for a local business who was asked to do one last job, in order to get out of it all!! then you have his brother Christian (played by an awful Adrian Paul from the Highlander TV series) who was responsible for putting him in prison who wants to make amends for what happened. When i say "make amends" it certainly doesn't pan out in that way. More on this character later. Gary Stretch who plays the lead character Mitchell Mason, has a good on-screen presence, but he is not a leading man. He is surrounded by some heavyweights and some seriously bad "lightweights" that actually make him look like Robert De Niro at times (no offence Bob). He tries his best but even Vinnie Jones as the corrupt cop makes him look like a cardboard cut-out as he hams up the "bad cop" role like a spit-roasted pig. Christopher Lee and Jean Marsh are on show (yet i can't see what possessed them to want to be part of this?) play the parents and some of their scenes are so painful to watch as they are put in scenes with such awful acting that you feel embarrassed for them! Stephen Rea does his best as an upper class bad guy but you still cringe watching the drivel script he has to deal with. Then you have Sadie Frost as a local Bar Owner (i'm not sure what this part of the film's purpose was, as it was pointless). Then you have the worst acting I have seen in a long time. Hang on, 2nd worst! Adrian Paul who plays Mitchell's brother Christian, simply CANNOT act, and that is an understatement. I have seen dead people show more emotion and talent than this guy. I think the director actually did him a favour in hiring the actress to play his wife as she is even worse, and that must have been tough. The acting by these 2 characters would've been perfect in an Olaf Ittenbach horror movie. Yes, its that bad!! The storyline is all over the place as it tries to be cool and modern by going back and forth in the timelines. I think the film would have worked better if they had just done it from first date to last. I think new directors must think this works in gangster style movies but in this one it fails. On a plus point, the scenes with Shannyn Sossamon (Claire) are the high points of the film. If only they had put more into this than they did, it could've actually been a good film. There is definitely a chemistry there between the 2 characters and they should have focused on this a lot more. I would say Shannyn's performance is one of the better ones overall. The last 20-30 minutes of this film are actually not bad, if you can endure the first 70 minutes. But don't expect anything special with this film. You won't get it!! Best thing to do? go and dig out Going Off Big Time. Similar film but better acting, script, plot, etc.

With a new TV for Christmas and having viewed most of the new titles out there, I was looking for something new and visually pleasing with some potential action to spice it up. After reading terrible reviews almost across the board for this movie, I came across one review that said it was a good action movie to just sit back and enjoy and that the story wasn't terrible...the reviewer must have been thinking of another movie. I was looking forward to at least some quality acting based on the cast, but it was one corny line and terrible camera angle after the other. The action was extremely limited which made the long stretches of poor story and character development even more unbearable. When the action did show up, it was quick and made even worse by the cheesy matrix style(camera following slow motion bullets with trails) it was edited with. Avoid this one if you value 2 hours of your life that you could be doing something much more productive with. I felt cheated in the end.