Once Upon a Time in Venice
Steve Ford is a private detective in Venice Beach, Calif., who's good with the ladies, bad with the punches and wild about his dog Buddy. When local thugs steal Buddy, Ford turns to Spyder, their devious leader, and forges an unlikely alliance. With help from his best friend, Steve pulls out the big guns to retrieve Spyder's stolen cash and cocaine and save Buddy.
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- Cast：
- Bruce Willis , Jason Momoa , John Goodman , Thomas Middleditch , Famke Janssen , Elisabeth Röhm , Adam Goldberg
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Reviews
Too much of everything
Don't listen to the negative reviews
Best movie ever!
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN VENICE is a quirky comedy thriller set in California. It's another straight to video effort for ageing action man Bruce Willis, playing up to his wise guy persona by tackling the role of a tired and caffeine-addicted private detective who goes off the deep end when the dog he's been dogsitting is kidnapped. This is a low budget and quite bizarre little outing at times, variously copying the likes of JOHN WICK and PULP FICTION at times. The cast is populated by a tapestry of oddball characters, some of whom work, some of whom don't. There's a lot of sex and a lot of shouting and a few witty scenes. Tonally it's all over the place, too often wallowing in toilet and crude humour, as well as repetition (the amount of times Willis gets knocked out without suffering any after effects). Willis is okay, just okay, with his most memorable scene being the nude skateboarding moment which is achieved via some digital trickery. The ever-excellent John Goodman gives the best performance to my mind, although it's nice to see Jason Momoa playing something other than a stock tough guy. Thomas Middleditch is also quite amusing, which I wasn't expecting at all so kudos to him.
Loved it. It's almost as fun as Bruce's Moonlighting days. The only way this could get better is if it was the first part of a trilogy.
I stopped watching the minute I spotted grandpa Willis (butt naked) being beaten up and eventually chased through the streets by the brothers of the twenty-something year old woman he had just slept with. I like grandpa Willis but I really think it's time for him to retire if these are the kind of scripts that are landing in his agent's inbox.
I was so looking forward to this movie! Shot in iconic Venice Beach. Re-cast this movie and its a winner. 60 yr old Bruce Willis, it just didn't work. Insert any other male actor under 35 and this is a completely different movie and it could have been so good. Bruce Willis tries but the role is set for a much younger actor
