9 Bullets

This film could very well have been an acceptable, if formulaic and somewhat cheesy thriller. However, the character of Sam is just... not well acted at all. Child actors can't often rise to the level of their adult counterparts, but in this case it just really drags the whole film down and makes its shortcomings into glaring faults.

America's greatest independent writer/director, John Cassavetes, and his wife, the incomparable actress Gina Rowlands, made a great film called "Gloria" in 1980.

It is so well regarded a film that it has been copied no less than five times. Among the copies, are (inverting the genders) Luc Besson's film with Jean Reno and Nathalie Portman "Leon the Professional", "Julia" staring Tilda Swinton.

But "9 Bullets" is a truly junk rip off of Gloria. Tedious, laughable dialogue, lousy acting.

Some child actors will make or break a movie and character development of your main villain is essentially left out of the story.

The film was given a great actress and common premise but had nothing original to offer. We we're left to imagine a backstory and left to nothing on the screen and a sound track that couldn't support the tone of the film consistently. The film isn't worth saying more about.

Doesn't know if it's a thriller, a family film or just a bad guy meets bad girl film but somebody seems to have told half the cast it was a comedy judging by the acting !

This is a nonsense story with struggling out of work actors looking for a pay day and a director who thinks a whiny kid pulling at the audiences heartstrings is a guarantee of success !

That kid was very annoying BTW !

Could you possibly squeeze any more cliches, red herrings and garbage side plots into a film with five minutes worth of story ?

Good filming and production, the sound is good and the lighting is faultless, that's why I gave it 3 stars !

Lena Headey I think is a wonderful actress and can work any role perfectly but she certainly wasn't challenged with this dull script.

I've no idea about anything to do with the young child, Dean Scott Vazquez, who is the basis of the whole story but, he was very good with his delivery, acting style (though his crying in the early film parts is seriously annoying).

Barbara Hershey is like Lena in that she can work a role superbly.

Sam Worthington I have never thought of as a good (though he is not terrible) actor simply because ... 1) ...he always looks like he is half asleep and hasn't quite woken up to his surroundings and always looks like he is not putting any effort/interest into his roles (though not much he could really do with this naff script)... 2) ...plus - IMHO - he just doesn't have that strong screen presence factor, say like Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jnr, Gene Hackman etc.

It opens with burlesque dancer Lena on stage and has the camera about 6 feet away from her, so close you cannot see anything; even though she is hardly moving at all...with only slight - and I do mean SLIGHT - hand movements. Totally unimpressive and NOT a good way to immerse you into a film!

The problem with the film was that it was just dreary, dragged along in a dull way (and you knew exactly what was going to be the final outcome). The killers, working for Worthington's character, were just not believable and came across as Red Neck numb-nuts. The entire film draws not one iota of plausible emotional factor from you, as there is nothing to give you shock, humour or excitement feelings. Its purely only bearable because of the presence of Lena Headey and the kid, Dean Scott Vazquez.

I give it a 5 star rating but 4 of them are for Lena and Dean. The other is for the debut directors presentation. Though I think it was poor for me it was - for a first time effort - nicely done; as believe me, I have seen a zillion times worse from newbie directors!

There is gun violence... There is a completely pointless sex scene; Lena is totally nude and shows breasts/nipples...