User reviews

Small time gangster takes on Big time gangster the story has been down countless times before, but when its done well as here, makes for a good watch. Small budget and reflected in a fairly low profile cast, CG-Jr and Ferrer along with Keitel all make sound convincing performances. The violence is brutal and the characters harsh but convincing, certainly seen worse big budget examples of the genre getting their shot on the big screen. Don't expect anything ground breaking plot-wise but fans of the gangster flick wont be disappointed with the gritty realism, slick action sequences and unobtrusive soundtrack.

The movie has a great cast with good acting, a good story, and excellent action including nicely done gun work. It may not look like it will be good -- I was expecting a cheesy B-movie -- but it is actually, very good.

Nice mob film, with a simple story but very well written dialogues. Harvey Keitel is the mafia-movie seal of quality, Cuba Gooding Jr. Does correctly his usual performance, and I liked a lot Miguel Ferrer as his boss. The only drawback in my opinion is the ending. It is a conventional movie which goes well due the combination of dialogues and acting, not because of an innovative plot. The intention to introduce a surprising ending was forced, and introduced an inconsistency in the whole screenplay. The film amused me anyway, and the fine dialogues must be praised. An exemple may be found in the very beginning:

• How you doing back there, Joshua?

• I'm in too much pain to be dead. How you hanging in there, boss?

• I'm all right. I've Iost more blood from a bad shave.

• Damn. I think one of my Iungs just collapsed.

• That's all right. You only need one. My old man Iost a Iung to Joe Camel when he was 53 years old, and he Iived to be 67. Still running a pack a day through the other Iung. Of course, out of spite, he switched to Marlboro.

I've been ragging a lot on Cuba Gooding Jr. The past few reviews, so I'll go easy and speak about a good one instead. Wrong Turn At Tahoe has a script that should have been given the royal treatment; it's wise, brutal, thought provoking and very violent, with many sets of morals clashing against each other in true crime genre style. It didn't get a huge budget or a lot of marketing, but what it did get was a remarkably good cast of actors who really give the written word it's justice, telling a age old story dangerous people who inhabit the crime ridden frays of both society and cinema. Cuba plays Joshua, a low level mafia enforcer who works for Vincent (Miguel Ferrer), a ruthless mid level mobster who runs his operations with an OCD iron fist. He also rescued Joshua from a crack house when he was a young'in, forging a father son bond that runs deeper than terms of employment. When a weaselly informant tells them that local drug runner Frankie Tahoe (Noel Gugliemi, reliably scary) has it in for them, Vincent brashly retaliates first by viciously killing him. That's where the matter starts to get deep. Frankie was an employee of Nino (Harvey Keitel) that most powerful crime boss on the west coast and not a man to cross. Nino Wants hefty payment for the loss of Frankie, who was a good operative. Vincent, being the proud and belligerent son of a bitch that he is, bluntly refuses. So begins a bloody, near Shakespearean gang war in which both sides rack up heavy losses and the phrase 'crime doesn't pay' collects it's due. All parties were inevitably headed to a bitter end whether or not the Tahoe incident occurred, and I think the writer simply used that inciting incident as an example of many ways in which a life like that will always end up at a dead end. The writing is superb, especially for Gooding, Keitel and Ferrer, a vicious triangle indeed, all at the top of their game and then some. Johnny Messner is great as Gooding's cohort who can't keep his mouth shut, and watch for Mike Starr, Leonor Varela, Paul Sampson and Louis Mandylor too. Dark deeds, unexpected betrayal, self destructive ego, combustible machismo and ironic twists of fate are explored here in a script the remains as one of my favourite of that year. Really excellent stuff.

I watched plenty of movies this week and out of them, I think this is the best of the bunch.

The setup was good and it followed through rather nicely.

The story flowed well and there was not an over use of hard language or violence where there didn't need to be.

Of all the gangster movies I watched, this is one of the better ones.

What I really liked was that the film didn't take place in New York, Chicago, L.A. or Miami.

It also takes place in winter and not everybody lives in the largest of homes or has the latest fashions or has poor vocabulary skills.

The entire structure is nicely constructed and is a worthwhile viewing.

The Scorpion and the Frog story made total sense and brought back some memories of someone who used to tell me that same story - and in this movie, it made total sense.

Nice job to all.