Sous protection

Firstly let me just say the ratings here of 1's and 2's are just idiotic. There are always 'individuals' with an axe to grind about something they don't like, but a review is here not just to voice opinion, or as happens too often here 'vent' but also help others decide what to watch, and using a false perspective helps no one... so here goes.

I enjoyed most of this movie. It seems to be the norm these days but the writing, or more accurately parts of the plot and script, really do need some work. The shortcomings here are a tad shy of what I'd call 'serious' but enough to taint the overall movie sufficiently to make the viewing experience lacking. The ending in particular is hurried and a little foolish. It's poorly contrived and feels a little panicked as though there wasn't enough time to get it completely right. It lets down what is otherwise a half decent tale quite badly.

Sam Worthington plays a locally feared criminal head honcho, but we're given no information on the nature of this illicit business , in fact all aspects of this part of the story are curiously absent and we're left with a void of detail that hampers our ability to form any real connection with aspects of the story and many of the characters because of this. Considering the length of the film 1:36 they should really have re-appropriated some of the time afforded to many of the scenes that laboured for no good reason, to this more significant aspect of the story.

Worthington's rag-tag four man outfit of henchmen are really a 'Keystones Cop' bunch of misfits that seem anything but professional hitmen, or even seasoned thugs. Worthington does a good job with the role and totally carries pretty much all his scenes though sadly he's still let down but some poor screenplay and a wanting script.

Lena Headly tends to excel in roles that either require little emotional expression or those requiring excellence in the dark or negative side of human emotions and failings. She struggles a bit with the brighter emotional moments, even smiling seems to push her abilities somewhat. Though she does give a good performance, she's a little out of her depth in some of the scenes. Still, I think she does the role justice, and does pretty good job working with the material she's given... such as it is.

Dean Scott Vazquez is very good here and he may be one to watch as he certainly has a lot of potential and could be a star in the making. Barbara Hershey has a minor role but the rest of the cast is largely forgettable save Cam Gigandet who I found particularly entertaining as Tommy.

Its an enjoyable film for the most part and though it does fall short in quite a few areas the underlying story is a good one. Sadly it wasn't done well here, and I can't really recommend it as a satisfying entertainment piece. At one hour and thirty six minutes, its a lot of time to invest in mediocrity.

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.

Watched this on Hulu last night as I had 90+ minutes to kill. I'd have been better off watching a YouTube video of grass growing. Quite simply nothing at all good about this movie. I gave it 2 stars because the actors themselves weren't bad even if their dialog and plot points were awful.

As many have noted the first thing I thought of with the opening premise was Gloria from the 80s. I haven't seen that in decades and now want to go back to try and scrub this from my brain.

As others have also noted the movie just doesn't know where it wants to go or what it wants to be.

The fact that we're supposed to buy into a relationship between the boy and the woman who have zero connection other than being neighbors is too much to ask. The kid just had his entire family murdered and a few hours later they're laughing and joking about her skirt being too short and PB&Js.

Now it's easy to slice and dice it from a plot/reality point and I wont do that on everything ( there were many ) but there are a few notable things.

Why wouldn't she just bring the kid to the closest non-local ( avoid corruption ) police station ?

Why was she still pretending to have this weird love/hare relationship with a dude that killed an entire family ?

Tie those 2 together and the police put him away for life.

SPOILER-Even in the end he gets away and there's no punishment for him-SPOILER

How/why did Worthington's character get from the cemetery which was seemingly hours away to the airport where his young g/f just happened to be ?

But maybe my biggest problem with it was the fact that Gypsy tells this horrifying story about losing her kid in a car accident and then thinks its OK to let the kid take the steering wheel on a dark road while she's sleepy. And then she does the letting him drive thing a few more times. WTH

Then it's all wrapped up nicely with them going away together and him no longer caring that his parents were murdered.

Just absolute trash. Wish I could unwatch it.

Though it watched it all it was extremely difficult. Another pitiful movie.

The acting of the kid was very good but other than that there is nothing good about it.

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.