Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Blood, bullets and black comedy feature strongly in this action-packed slice of Nineties noir that entertains by taking a whole series of typical film noir ingredients and hyping them up to the max. Its story about the downfall of a New York City cop is told in flashback with the man himself providing the hardboiled narration. Despite this, he never becomes a sympathetic character because he's entirely self-centred, driven by greed and lust and habitually betrays everyone who puts any trust in him. Through his own actions, he charts the course of his own journey to hell which suddenly goes into overdrive from the moment that he meets one of the most monstrous femmes fatales imaginable.NYPD Detective Jack Grimaldi (Gary Oldman) is a guy with big dreams who envies the lifestyles of the mobsters that he keeps under surveillance in his day-to-day work and supplements his meagre earnings by acting as an informant for local Mob boss Don Falcone (Roy Scheider). After tipping Falcone off about the whereabouts of Nick Gazzara (Dennis Farina), a gangster who, under the witness protection program, had volunteered to give evidence, Gazzara is assassinated by Russian hit-woman Mona Demarkov (Lena Olin) who also kills the Feds who were responsible for guarding the witness.Mona is soon arrested and Jack is instructed to take her to a safe-house from where she'll be collected by FBI agents. At the safe-house , she uses seduction as a weapon to quickly assert her dominance over the weak-willed cop and he's subsequently found in a very compromising position when the FBI men arrive.Jack, a serial womaniser who'd been nicknamed "Romeo" by his colleagues, is unfaithful to his supportive wife Natalie (Annabella Sciorra) and takes his good-natured mistress Sheri (Juliette Lewis) for granted despite the fact that she'd do absolutely anything for him. He's also addicted to "feeding the hole" in his back yard where he keeps the considerable amount of cash that he'd been paid by Falcone and thinks that he's doing really well until Falcone suddenly wants him to kill Mona and isn't prepared to take "no" for an answer. The mayhem that follows then becomes very violent, not always credible and full of surprises.One of the best things about this movie is its tremendous cast which features people of the calibre of Dennis Farina, Juliette Lewis and Annabella Sciorra in supporting roles and Roy Scheider who's exceptionally good as the intimidating Falcone. Gary Oldman is perfect in a part that could almost have been written for him and Lena Olin seems to thoroughly enjoy portraying all the antics of her ruthless, sadistic and completely unhinged femme fatale."Romeo Is Bleeding", with its stylish direction, top-class cinematography and atmospheric score is often lurid, sensational and over-the-top but its comic-book style is perfectly suited to the nature of its characters and its fast-moving plot.

which strictly speaking should not be stealable in the first place.I mean, on the surface this is one of those oddball in-color "film noire" gangstery films which Hollywood has become so fond of recently.It has an especially clever script and reminds me in subtle ways of the many cross-arcs in Lucky Number Slevin.The two stars Gary Oldman and Lena Olin both do not usually get the chance to do a star turn, they are both very under-used as primary characters, and that should be the end of the review.But it is not. Olin gives an extraordinary performance, part sensuality, part evil genius, part crazy. By the end of the film she makes Kevin Spacey look like a chartered accountant.Also a nice cautionary tale on letting your reach exceed your grasp.Extraordinary. Highly recommended.

Every time its May 1 or December 1, I think of this movie. It means something, it must be good to leave that kind of impression on me. When a movie sticks in your mind, even if its just one quote, for so long after you have seen it (and the last time I saw it was 3 or 4 years ago) it means it can't be bad. So thats one thing. Another thing is that it has absolutely top notch cast. Gary Oldman, Lena Olin, Michael Wincott, Juliette Lewis, Annabella Sciorra, Will Patton and James Cromwell-all serious and talented actors. And the story is very interesting too. I mean you have this so-flawed main character who is at the same time very human and even sympathetic in a way that he's lost, he can't really help all the mess he's got himself in. It is a very human character, no? And in the end he does the right thing, but is it too late? Seems so. This movie is just about that-how we sometimes don't wake up and see the light until we have lost everything that was dear to us.What is the flaw with the movie? Maybe its that it didn't perhaps get everything it could from such an interesting storyline. I mean, corrupt cop who's in the mafia's pocket and cheats on his wife yet loves her, then gets caught in the dangerous game with a deadly Russian criminal who is a man eater at the same time...well, maybe not after all. Its a movie that succeeds in pulling it all together rather well and at the same time making us stay on the edge of our seat to see whats gonna happen next. Not many American modern movies have done that. I can mention one that came out the same year as this one, Carlito's Way. But that is a different story and genre really. That was a gangster film noir with a love story thrown in, this is both a film noir and a love story. Thats why the title is ROMEO is Bleeding.Gary Oldman makes one of his strongest performances and the same can perhaps be said for Olin, who is very convincing and menacing in her part as the deadly seductress whose only aim is to devour everything in her path. The ending leaves us in doubt to what really happened, there is no typical Hollywood ending and thats good. It again mirrors how things really go in life as Jack is left on his own waiting anxiously for his wife but nobody, not even he, knows if he will ever see her again. And thats art imitating life.

This curious pic doesn't know if it wants to keep a straight face or make bizarre faces. It opts for both ways which results in a highly uneven genre bastard that leaves one unsatisfied despite some choice moments such as the sad coda, which works better than it should.Oldman's desperate loser, Olin's over-the-top femme fatale, Scheider's old-school Mafia don... they all are individually convincing, but not when thrown together in a mishmash of soft-boiled philosophical voice-over ramblings, heavy-handed cop flick and film noir genre tropes and, eh, sexually connotated arm amputations.So the pic's quite a mess, particularly in the story department, but it's still worth a look. At least, it's not by the numbers.4 out of 10 tell-tale photo albums