The Ministers

Harvey Keitel is his usual great self in this crime/action/thick-with-religious-fervor film about vigilante justice and highly motivated detectives trying tangle in the perps. The problem with this movie, in my humble opinion, is the less-than-coherent script, which falls short in its efforts to utilize underdeveloped characters and poorly directed scenes that do not seem aligned with the primary storyline.

Rotten Tomatoes correctly ascribes only 13% rating to a movie that tries too hard to unscramble some broken eggs. It's mainly the principal female lead working with Keitel. Few things in life are less attractive than a key character smoking a cigarette. It's totally unnecessary, so shame on the director/writer for making this a necessary part. Yuck. Movies need to END this disgusting habit, period.

In New York, Detective Alberto Santana (Benny Nieves) comes with his partner Joseph Bruno (Harvey Keitel) to meet his wife Gina and his daughter Celeste (Gabriella Fanuele) to celebrate her eighteenth birthday. Out of the blue, Alberto is shot in his head on the sidewalk by a man wearing a hood that delivers a religious message from the Lord. Many years later, Celeste (Florencia Lozano) is a detective of the New York Police Department and partner of Joe Bruno.

When the crooks Alden and Jeff Kane, who had torched their buildings to receive the insurance, are released from prison, they are executed by two criminals in the same modus operandi of detective Santana, and the police department concludes that they are the same killers. Lieutenant Diaz (Wanda de Jesus) assigns Detective Manso (Manny Perez) and Detective Demarco (Saul Stein) from narcotics to investigate the case, for the deception of Celeste. Then the drug dealer Chino and his gang are executed in Manhattan's Lower East Side by the killers Dante and his deformed and deranged twin brother Perfecto (John Leguizamo), and Lieutenant Diaz teams up Joe and Celeste with Manso and Demarco. Meanwhile, Dante meets Celeste in the church and they date first and have a love affair. When Perfecto decides to kill Joe, Dante argues with him but the dysfunctional brother does not listen to him.

"The Ministers" is a film with a good police story ruined by a messy screenplay and a melodramatic direction that transforms a gloomy story with great potential in a soap opera. John Leguizamo and Harvey Keitel have reasonable performances, but Florencia Lozano does not convince as a detective and does not show any chemistry with John Leguizamo. This film really deserved Abel Ferrara in the direction. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Justiceiros de Deus" ("Vigilantes of God")

When one watches a Frank Reyes film, one knows the movie will be entertaining and there will be plenty of action. Reyes is a disciple of John Singleton. One watches his films for entertainment and for escapism, nothing more. Thirteen years after her father was slain, and now a New York City homicide detective, she (the lead actress) sets out to discover the truth behind the gruesome murder. The movie has a kind of religious theme and is a psychological thriller with a nice arc from start to finish. Great acting from John Leguizamo, Harvey Keitel and Wanda De Jesus, who is a "regular" from Reyes films. Don't analyze every frame, just take it for what it is and sit back and enjoy the film.

Of course Boondock Saints wasn't the first movie, with people on a "mission", but you kinda feel like this goes a similar way. It also has some other people in it though and does not play for laughs or strays off into another reality. This stays grounded in "our" world, with real problems and some confusion (character and otherwise).

It stays morally ambiguous, which may or may not be a good thing (depending on your view of things, or how you liked the acting. Name checking aside (also character names, see John L. for that), it does not bring completely new things on the table. But what it serves, it serves up pretty good (for a low budget movie that is). Harvey ("Bad Lieutenant") Keitel is always dependable, though John L. seems not at the top of his game. I've seen him do better things, with his roles.

A New York City detective (Celeste - Florencia Lozano) searches for "the ministers," who murdered her father in front of her years ago, and who are still killing. She unwittingly becomes involved with one of the killers (Dante - John Leguizamo).

I came into this movie with low expectations. Nearly every review I saw of it made it look pretty bad, but I will watch pretty much any movie regardless of what the reviewers say. Unfortunately, I ended up having to agree with those reviews.

The acting in this movie just felt really awkward most of the time. Every time Harvey Keitel was on screen it seemed like they just shoved him in front of the camera and threw lines at him without ever letting him see a script. The one scene I'm talking about in particular is when he is crying and begging Celeste to not go...man, it was just embarrassing to watch. John Leguizamo was decent most of the time, but at other times it seemed like he was just goofing around.

The storyline was cluttered and confusing. It really felt like the movie was trying to be a mash-up of Boondock Saints, Se7en, and other crime movies that involve religion. There were too many things going on at once, and none of the elements ended up working.

The ending was HORRIBLE!! I know they were -trying- to be dramatic with it but it just came off seeming un-needed, forced, and cheap. Even if the rest of the movie was passable, the end simply destroys it.

Overall it was an -okay- movie until the ending completely demolishes it.

Final Score - 3/10