How sad is this?

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Great Film overall

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Isn't it funny, how the movies you really don't expect much out of, turn out to be the most fun. Bobby Z wasn't something that was high on my list of things to see, but it was streaming and fit my mood, so I watched it and what a surprise, a well written, Action film, with a pretty good plot! Bobby Z is a legendary local crime boss in Southern California. He is a very elusive man that the Mexican drug lords go to extreme measures to find. Don Huertero (Joaquim de Almeida) has kidnapped an FBI agent and will only exchange him for Bobby Z, but there's a problem, Bobby Z is dead. The clever folks at the FBI decide to find someone who looks like Z and send him in, that man is Tim Kearney (Paul Walker), and his life depends on how well he can trick people into believing that he is Bobby Z, a man he's never met. Paul Walker is the star of this clever film and he does a tremendous job. I'm not fan of Walker's, whenever he does anything that isn't a gritty Action film, he stinks, fortunately this is a gritty Action film and he was engaging, delightful, and even funny as he tried to play someone he's not. As for the rest of the cast, it was certainly a unique mix of people, but being centered around one man and one goal, really made it work. It's unusual to find a deep plot in an Action film and that's why this film was so unique. Aside from some terrific stunts and fight scenes, there were twists and turns, crosses and double-crosses, even some humor. Bobby Z was really a lot of fun to watch, and it will keep you guessing while at the same time showing you some terrific action sequences, I was more than impressed by this film and by Paul Walker for that matter. It's easy to say, well he's been playing an undercover agent in The Fast & Furious for a decade now, but it certainly wasn't the same thing. The Death & Life of Bobby Z is a wild ride, that's a lot of fun, and it will keep you guessing, you can't ask for more than that.

The mere idea of having a man serving time to impersonate a notorious drug dealer who is in Thailand running away from justice is preposterous, to put it mildly! How do the creators of "The Death and Life and Bobby Z" ever thought, for reality sake, to be able to even think that by sending the former marine, now a con man, into the lion's den without at one point being discovered as a fake? The whole thing is the idea of a corrupt law enforcement officer who thinks he will use the former marine to get at the kingpin of the drug empire who supplied the original Bobby Z with his merchandise.The movie is not totally horrible, as action films go. The main problem is the many plot holes in the narrative that the creators probably didn't count on, or thought their viewers wouldn't figure out how the whole mess was going to turn out. John Herzfeld directed the screen play by Bob Krakower and Allan Lawrence. The credibility gap is huge when the people involved asks us to accept things that don't make too much sense.If you can buy the fact that Elizabeth would not know who the impostor was right away, then there is no problem enjoying this film that from all indication went straight to video.Paul Walker is the action hero. The problem with his acting that he doesn't show any credible emotion. An uncredited Bruce Dern is the narrator that gives us an account of Bobby Z's accomplishments in that la-la land of Southern California. Joaquim de Almeida plays another one of his bad guys. Laurence Fishburne has nothing to play with. Gorgeous Olivia Wilde appears as Elizabeth, Bobby Z's former girlfriend. Keith Carradine has a small part.

I rented this movie thinking, "Hey, Paul Walker wasn't too bad in the fast and furious films and Laurence Fishburne is just awesome so why not get it?" Well friends, looks can and are deceiving, and I learned the hard way last evening watching this film. The director is trying so bad to keep you involved (or wanting to be involved) and for me it wasn't happening. The whole 'syking everyone out to think I'm Bobby Z' script work got old really quick, Paul Walker's acting was sub par (I haven't seen a lot of his work but I've been told by many that he's not that great of an actor). I cannot imagine what went through Laurence Fishburne's head when choosing to be in this film, he has done better, WAY better! There are way too many close up shots of Paul Walker (for absolutely no other reason than to show off his "Good Looks" and play some really lame music along with it). There is always some hot girl and a kid involved that need their lives saved, if you've seen it once, you've seen it a hundred times (just this time with Paul Walker). I suggest this film to people who only like Paul Walker and his close ups and not action flicks, because thats about all you get. Walker couldn't portray a criminal to save his life! Sorry Paul Walker fans, your boy let me down.

While it's no worse than much of the action movie junk that makes it to theatres, Bobby Z, originally entitled The Death and Life of Bobby Z, is a action thriller with Tim Kearney (Walker) as our hero. Kearney is a convict who's an ex-Marine and clearly not so much a bad person as one who has frequently found himself in trouble due to circumstance rather than intent. This gives director John Herzfeld, whose own career hacs been on less than an up-tick since the appropriately named 15 Minutes came and went in about that long, a premise for having a good guy hero who still fits the label of a tough convict.The slightly convoluted storyline sees Kearney – whose life is in peril since he killed a biker gang boss in prison (self defence, of course) – offered an opportunity to walk free, as long as he's willing to impersonate a drug kingpin who happens to look just like Kearney, and who has just died. Fishburne plays the Drug Enforcement Agency cop who puts Kearney up to this task.Before you can say 'gunfights are fun', Kearney is being shot at by the cops, manhandled by Mexican drug thugs, pursued by the bikers, and generally in demand by everyone, regardless of whether they think he's Kearney or Bobby Z. Our hero, of course, dodges the bullets, battles the bad guys, befriends Bobby Z's son (who has never met his dad) and romances a beautiful woman (Olivia Wilde) whose relationship with the bad guys is a bit hazy, but clearly quite intimate.Filled with head scratching twists and cornball dialogue, this is not exactly a brilliant film. Yet it's got a slick look and at least a few passably enjoyable action scenes. And Walker, while never likely to be mistaken for a Shakespearian thespian, has the good looks and charisma to lead the way here. At least his character isn't loaded down with as many stupidly threatening lines as Fishburne's. Wilde also does a passable job as Kearney's conflicted love interest; she's mainly called upon to look good (which she accomplishes rather easily), but also doesn't muff her lines when she does have something to say.Movie was funny, entertaining and I enjoyed it.