Triggermen

This film seems as if it tried to be a clever comedy/hardcore gangster film along the lines of Snatch, Lock Stock, and some other good ones. Unfortunately, the cast was unimpressive, the story was unoriginal, and the dialogue was not snappy in the least. It just tried to follow a common formula and did nothing new. Furthermore, the things it did, it did poorly. No one would care about these characters, no one can sympathize with much of what went on, with the possible exception of Wahlberg's character.

You can't just take a bunch of character actors and throw them into a film and expect it to work. Some of the actors are incredibly competent, but with such limited material to work with, I suppose failure was inevitable.

Yes, this is a post Tarantino movie, full of lovable, deep, insightful hit men and con men. Yes, hit men are usually pretty cool guys, except for a rogue one like Boots who gives the noble profession a bad name. Well the movie starts out on a promising theme, after a generic aborted mob hit, two English con men are trapped in a fleabag motel in Chicago (somewhere in Canada actually) without enough money to pay the landlady. They are harmless small timers who take international crime trips to America as some sort of road bonding adventure. They are two popular British TV personalities, Neil Morrissey & Adrian Dunbar, who are okay but not standout in real life. So one of them happens upon some mob loot in a luggage scam he pulls in a high class hotel lobby. It was a down payment cash for a mob hit. So these two guys, neither are suicidal or great risk takers, decide to use the reserved room that was earmarked for the real hit men and find some more loot, a key to the target's room and a pistol with a silencer. Like I said, these are small time survivor types, so naturally they hang out in the room, living it up until the mobsters who hired them, sight unseen, comes to visit. All the through the movie, one asks, "why not cut out with some easy cash and go back to England to your pregnant witch girlfriend while the going is safe?"

Meanwhile the two American hit men, who were supposed to get the room and cash are hanging out trying to figure out what happened to their lucrative contract. One of them, played by a Don Wahlberg, falls in love with some woman who happens to be the mobster's to be hit daughter. See, he is a nice guy too, misunderstood, who just wants a normal suburban life yadda yadda. The other one is played by Michael Rappaport, so he is obnoxious, stupid and loud, but not a bad guy either. You know those hit men types.

So all sorts of lame hijinks ensue as the con men pretend to be hit men and are coerced by the bad hit men to go through with it. Meanwhile the two real hit men unravel the mystery while Donnie hits on the actress. So it goes on to a lame conclusion where only the bad hit men get it and everyone else gets a piece of the action. Prety harmless, but in that respect it is more Hollywood than indie or Tarantino.

John Bradshaw's "Triggermen" deserved a bigger audience. Judging by the comments submitted to this forum, it must have been a film that went directly to DVD, because obviously it was abandoned to its fate by the distributors. Mr. Bradshaw shows he can produce films that keep the viewer entertained and because he gets good performances from his cast. The film was written by Tony Johnson.

The main interest for watching "Triggermen" was to see Adrian Dunbar and Neil Morressey, who are excellent actors. They play a pair of English low lives who have come to Chicago in search of easy schemes, but they haven't been lucky. That is, until Pete, stumbles upon an case that contains money and a photograph of someone who has to be eliminated. His solution is to take advantage of the situation, move with Andy from the seedy place they are staying into the posh hotel that has been reserved for the would be killer.

This pair gets much more than what they bargained for. Little do they know they have double crossed the real pair of executioners. The film is a comedy of errors that delivers a lot because of the mistaken identities. Since one knows who is who, there is no suspense because one realizes where the film is going.

Pete Postlewaite, one of the best English character actors, appears as the retiring mafia don, Ben Cutler, who is staying in the hotel with his lovely daughter. Claire Forlini is a gorgeous woman to look at, and as Emma, the daughter, she becomes the object of love for one of the real assassins, Terry, who falls in love with her. These other duo, played by Donnie Wahlberg and Michael Rapaport, are good in most of their scenes together.

Let's hope John Bradshaw will be back soon with another film where he will be recognized for his obvious talent.

Among the films screened early on at the American Film Market 2002 in Feb., was "The Triggermen", a pleasant reminder that even with a relatively small budget, a movie can succeed if generously laced with invention and humor.

Two Brits lacking funds, Pete (Neil Morrissey) and Andy (Adrian Dunbar), are mistaken for two killers hired to bump off Ben Cutler (Pete Postlewaite) a Mob chieftain. The laughs come fast and often as one complication lands on top of another. Things are not helped when one of the so-called killers falls in love with Cutler's daughter, played by Claire Forlani.

Despite a few rough edges, director John Bradshaw brings in a likable movie I think should be high on most moviegoers have-to-see list.

Easy waste of time, seeing some uK actors early in their careers. A but predictable.