A Major Disappointment

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Appalling acting as Freeride said, Stretch is an unappealing anti hero, the guy playing his brother is the worst actor i have seen in many a year, you don't really care what happens to any of them, the story line flies past at 1 mile an hour, Geoff Bell must have been stuck for work same as Christopher Lee, and Vinnie will take on any role as long as it keeps his mush on the silver screen.Avoid at all costs and save your money towards a tooth extraction, it will be more fun. This should have gone straight in the bin and not to DVD, it is time i will never get back, and i kept thinking i have to turn this rubbish off, but i just had to see it through, it was that bad. Never tell a boxer( and the guy playing his insipid brother) he can act i think is the moral here.

With a new TV for Christmas and having viewed most of the new titles out there, I was looking for something new and visually pleasing with some potential action to spice it up. After reading terrible reviews almost across the board for this movie, I came across one review that said it was a good action movie to just sit back and enjoy and that the story wasn't terrible...the reviewer must have been thinking of another movie. I was looking forward to at least some quality acting based on the cast, but it was one corny line and terrible camera angle after the other. The action was extremely limited which made the long stretches of poor story and character development even more unbearable. When the action did show up, it was quick and made even worse by the cheesy matrix style(camera following slow motion bullets with trails) it was edited with. Avoid this one if you value 2 hours of your life that you could be doing something much more productive with. I felt cheated in the end.

I had high hopes for this movie. The plot was a man out of jail working as a debt collector for a local business who was asked to do one last job, in order to get out of it all!! then you have his brother Christian (played by an awful Adrian Paul from the Highlander TV series) who was responsible for putting him in prison who wants to make amends for what happened. When i say "make amends" it certainly doesn't pan out in that way. More on this character later. Gary Stretch who plays the lead character Mitchell Mason, has a good on-screen presence, but he is not a leading man. He is surrounded by some heavyweights and some seriously bad "lightweights" that actually make him look like Robert De Niro at times (no offence Bob). He tries his best but even Vinnie Jones as the corrupt cop makes him look like a cardboard cut-out as he hams up the "bad cop" role like a spit-roasted pig.Christopher Lee and Jean Marsh are on show (yet i can't see what possessed them to want to be part of this?) play the parents and some of their scenes are so painful to watch as they are put in scenes with such awful acting that you feel embarrassed for them! Stephen Rea does his best as an upper class bad guy but you still cringe watching the drivel script he has to deal with. Then you have Sadie Frost as a local Bar Owner (i'm not sure what this part of the film's purpose was, as it was pointless). Then you have the worst acting I have seen in a long time. Hang on, 2nd worst!Adrian Paul who plays Mitchell's brother Christian, simply CANNOT act, and that is an understatement. I have seen dead people show more emotion and talent than this guy. I think the director actually did him a favour in hiring the actress to play his wife as she is even worse, and that must have been tough. The acting by these 2 characters would've been perfect in an Olaf Ittenbach horror movie. Yes, its that bad!!The storyline is all over the place as it tries to be cool and modern by going back and forth in the timelines. I think the film would have worked better if they had just done it from first date to last. I think new directors must think this works in gangster style movies but in this one it fails.On a plus point, the scenes with Shannyn Sossamon (Claire) are the high points of the film. If only they had put more into this than they did, it could've actually been a good film. There is definitely a chemistry there between the 2 characters and they should have focused on this a lot more. I would say Shannyn's performance is one of the better ones overall.The last 20-30 minutes of this film are actually not bad, if you can endure the first 70 minutes. But don't expect anything special with this film. You won't get it!! Best thing to do? go and dig out Going Off Big Time. Similar film but better acting, script, plot, etc.

Fair warning, The Heavy is not action packed or very suspenseful. It is a pretty slow moving drama about a reluctant assassin hired to kill his own brother. There is a failed attempt to keep things interesting by scrambling the time line with a sort of Pulp Fiction feel but it doesn't work. Nothing really makes any sense, why the woman who is being held captive isn't tied up or why the crack shot needs fifty bullets to put one in the bad guy's head and so on and so forth. The script is just contrived to keep things moving along for one of the longest hour and a halves that you are likely to experience. The Heavy is a pretty well made bad movie but a bad movie nonetheless.