10 Cent Pistol

10 Cent Pistol is street slang for drugs laced with poison. It is also the title of another poor attempt to be a Tarantino type film and hides its flimsy story on a scrambled narrative which just makes the film appear confusing.

Two hoodlum brothers along with an aspiring actress get together and raid the mansion belonging to a gangster called Punchy (Joe Mantegna) who absconded with some government bonds and now they target his grown up son, Harris. The film opens with two cops investigating a silent alarm as a nervous Harris opens the door.

We then have flashbacks as to how these people got here including violent shootouts, double crosses as well as triple crosses. The film has to rely on heavy narration to make any sense.

I like movies "about criminals". Sorry. But they can be sort of fun a times. I know that crime is no fun, but watching a cool main character shooting, chasing, getting away, and then bringing them lawless criminals to justice is plain cool. But this flick was probably the worst one of them all for the following reasons: 1) The story line jumps all over the place and you quickly lose it BECAUSE YOU DON'T KNOW WHY IT HAS TO SHIFT LIKE THIS. 2) The sorry-mess producers of this useless flick appear to be suffering from a sort of an anti-Russian psychosis, since almost all of the movie's characters keep pointlessly complaining that "Russians can't shoot", "Russians can't aim", "Russians never won any wars", "Russian guns don't fire", etc. Evidently, anyone who is even partially in his right mind knows that this B$ carries no real sense. None. Whatsoever. If you don't think so, then go watch something about training 'them dragons or something. And grow up if you can. Thank you. Obviously, everyone who knows anything loves the Russian-made firearms. Everyone who deals with serious stuff knows that 'them Russians can shoot. And anyone who ever had even half of a real education knows that 'them Russians won some wars here and there. Duh. It's just this movie seems so Russian-hating that it starts to seriously stink of someone's personal issue.

Like, if one of the producers got refused by a dozen of Russian and then by a hundred of Ukrainian girls (who are also primarily really good looking), then he got all personally psychotic about being refused by all of them hot girls and decided to make this nasty movie. Get help you, there! It's for your own good. Anyways, this is one annoying, pointless flick, and I would give it "-100" points if I could.

I understand this is not a high budget movie by well known producers, but it's still just sub-par.

The narrative itself could've been rather interesting, but the movie changes between different events and different viewing angles of these events at least every 10 minutes. Now, this doesn't make the story incomprehensible, but it really doesn't leave much space for actual, progressing plot. It's one of those films where you're told what happens right at the beginning, and the only point of even watching the rest of it is to have the oh-so-unbelievable plot twist to be somewhat understandable. There is only somewhat decent part near the middle of the movie, but it doesn't even play a significant role in the story line.

If you like to follow an interesting plot, this movie is not for you; there's nothing to follow. If you like crime-drama-mix-ups, don't. This is all drama with just a bit of gore.

This movie starts with a portion of the end story, then leads the viewer through different scenes backward in time. Very well crafted plot lines with an ugly undertone of violence lurking throughout. Good acting and an unexpected climax. While I viewed this film at home, I would not have been at all disappointed to have paid for a theater ticket. A main concept consists of the conflict sex and money, greed and violence bring to friendship. How these factors interplay over time is the core interest that make this story interesting on several levels. Don't worry if you get confused during the film, it will all come together. For a first time director, any director, the composition is slick. Watch closely and you can see how the "kitchen shot" changes from expensive and modern in the future, to old and blue collar earlier in time. Well done!

The acting is fine, story is convoluted, the flashbacks, narration and backstabbing make for a movie that forces you to pay attention, but is not strong enough to hold it. Truthfully I would give this a 4.5. Still, If you have nothing better, it's ok.