Wow! Such a good movie.

A Masterpiece!

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

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.

Tonight on broadcast TV were two films from 2009. This was one, Black Dynamite was the other. Mike Starr was a character in both. Black Dynamite had a 3-million budget and made $300k. Yup, it could barley make 1/10 of its budget. That tells you all you need to know, despite the people raving about what a great spoof it is. I guess no one remembers I'm Gonna Get You Sucka. The shame is that the actors are great in Black Dynamite. The bigger-name actors in this film are even a little better. Its instructive to see how much better Mike Starr is used in this film compared to Black Dynamite.The primary difference is the script and the courage of the director. Franck Khalfoun, the director, had the guts to play it straight and he pulled it off. Wrong Turn had a 6-million dollar budget and went straight to DVD for reasons I cannot fathom. It relied on gore a little too much, and the younger directors all make moves that are a live-action variant of a first-person shooter video game. So be it, this was still pretty good, with some great moments. Not sure why Khalfoun is not doing more-- he sure did a great job with this.The quality of the acting was so good, I am amazed they could get this cast for such a low budget. The music was good, and there were times that the cinematography was stunning. Not always, but a few shots were Deakins-like, where if you freeze the frame it looks like a painting. And I was watching in 480SD with sidebars. Seeing this in HD would be great.I really don't know why critics panned this-- maybe it was the straight-to-DVD aspect and they never watched it, they just assumed it would be bad. I think this holds up with Transporter and the Bourne flicks, and best of all, no nauseating shaky-cam like Bourne. Its a nice little Walking Tall meets Scarface flick and I recommend it. I give 7 stars. Its not The Departed, but its way better than Black Dynamite.The biggest mystery to me is why screenwriter Eddie Nickerson only did this one flick, and why people are not beating down his door for more of the same. Six million, and the whole crew gets a lot of bang for those bucks.

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.

If you have kept an eye on Cuba Gooding Jr.'s career over the past few years, you probably know he's been churning out awful direct-to-DVD movies after being branded box office poison. Having seen several of these movies, I initially had no plans to see "Wrong Turn At Tahoe". I only decided to give it a whirl after reading a positive review of it at another web site.I was surprised by what I watched - this is a pretty decent drama. First, the production values are very strong for what was reportedly just an $8 million budget. It looks slick, while at the same time having a moody look that's appropriate for the nastiness that happens. As for Gooding, he is for once believable in his role, successfully showing a hard edge for his character. However, it is Miguel Ferrer who steals the show as Gooding's boss - he really commands the screen when the center of attention is on him.The dialogue is good, colorful yet not in a show-off manner. The characters are believable in their actions. And the movie travels at a relaxed pace (though not TOO relaxed). Some younger viewers might find it too slow, but I thought the movie kept interest despite its slow pace.The movie is not perfect. The decision to show part of the end at the beginning somewhat spoils things. The hand-to-hand combat at the climax seems out of an action movie, not a serious drama. And the "twist" at the last minute is somewhat silly; I could not believe the revelation would have stayed hidden for so long. There are a couple of other flaws I could mention, but overall this is an engaging movie that could have played in theaters.