Federal Protection

On paper FEDERAL PROTECTON just seems a workman like revenge thriller where someone turns stool pigeon and the mob have to hunt him down to keep his mouth shut and perhaps if the plot had been structured like this it might have worked slightly better . The problem is the story gets sidelined with a major subplot featuring someone wanting to make a lot of money by knowing where the stoolie is

Perhaps screenwriter Craig Smith can be excused slightly since my gut instinct is that director Anthony Hickox is more to blame for the film's failings . Hickox father Douglas was a director who could his turn his hand to different types of genre in films as diverse as THEATRE OF BLOOD and ZULU DAWN . Anthony is better known for his early horror films and seems slightly out of his depth as to how he should approach the material here . The film has the look of a lightweight 1980s film which seems at odds with the Taratinoesque dialogue though sometimes it delves in to erotic comedy thriller

That said Hickox has done well to cast Dina Meyer as Bootsie Cavander . She smoulders as a femme fatale who recognises a scheme to make money . Unfortunately the film seems to be pulling in different directions because the screenplay doesn't seem to have Bootsie as the main character but Ms Meyer is undoubtedly the best aspect of the film in much the same way as Linda Fiorentino is the best thing about THE LAST SEDUCTION . Perhaps the director should have insisted on a rewrite after the casting had been done ?