Satisfying Neo-Noir with all the Psychological Aberrations, multiple Betrayals, and assorted Sociopaths, that We have come to know in the World of Noir, are on full Display in this Above Average Foray. Yes, it is Formulaic, but True to its Roots, as is Essential in any and all Good Genre Entries in any Category. A Troubled Release for this Film and the associated, not fully understood, Career Change for David Caruso and his Mysterious Inability to get Work, made this Film not fully Appreciated. Fans of Film-Noir and it's modern Grand-Child Neo-Noir could expect no less from this Movie. Could stand beside John Dahl's early work like Red Rock West (1993) and Kill Me Again (1998).

***SPOILERS*** Mindless chase/action flick that has to do with a falling out among thieves. With the Arizona state troopers bearing down on them Jewel robber and a triple murderer Jude Law, Kelly Lynch, has her partner in crime Ned Tash, David Caruso, kicked out of the couple's speeding car where he's immediately arrested while Jude makes her successful getaway.As Ned is recovering from his wounds in the local hospital he gives the police the slip by barricading himself in his hospital room and then jumping out the back window. On the run and on foot Ned then buys himself-where did he get the money-a used car and picks up a teenage hitchhiker Bec Rosenberg, Stacey Dash, who for his good deed attempts to carjack him! Getting Bec, after disarming her, to see things his way Ned ends up at his hermits Uncle Mike's-John Spencer- place for the night. Ned now determined to knock off his former partner and lover Jude for double-crossing him has no trouble whatsoever in finding her at all. All he does is call information and wallah he gets her phone number at the motel she's staying at! It seems that Unce Mike living alone in the desert for years is hungry for female companionship and as soon as Ned's back is turned makes a play for the pretty but not so innocent, in being raped by her drunken father, Bec. This has Ned come to Bec's rescue by blasting the very drunk and horny Uncle Mike away before he can do any damage. Meanwhile while all this is going on Jude becomes very friendly with this weirdo she meets at a local bar, whom she treats to a cheeseburger and fries, the former Milwaukee brewery worker Mr "T", Chris Noth, who's not the original Mr"T" but just a cheap imitation.***SPOILER ALERT*** As Jude soon finds out Mr "T" isn't the brainless hick that she at first took him for. In fact Mr "T" isn't the very good and true blue friend that Ned, whom we find out that he's very tight with, thought he was either! Mr "T" turns out to be about the oddest odd-ball of the entire whacked out cast in the film! We have both Ned & Jude constantly double-crossing each other to the point that we in the audience start to loose focus to just what the movie is really all about; The missing $250,000.00 in uncut diamonds stolen at the beginning of the film, in the jewelry robbery, that had since disappeared! Added to the mix is Johnny "Coke-bottles" Costello, Pruitt Taylor Vince, who was supposed to fence the diamond that he now claims that he never had in the first place!In the end we have a number of deadly shootouts as well as miraculous resurrections together with an eye-popping almost nuclear-like explosion that just about wipes out, whatever still left of it, the films entire cast of charterers! It's who survives in all the carnage that's about the only surprise, and a non surprising one at that, that's still left in the movie!

John Ridley should stick to coming up with basic plotlines for other people to turn into good (or, in the case of "Three Kings", great) movies. If this film is any indication of his undiluted intent as a screenwriter then it serves as a case in point as to why some scripters just shouldn't be allowed to sit in the director's chair. The plotting is tiresome and utterly implausible in too many places (Caruso's escape from the hospital is ridiculously easy - and where does he get the money for the used car immediately afterwards? I suppose the cops just let him keep that big fat wad of bills in his hip pocket). And what is the point of having Stacy Dash's character narrate this whole inane, seen-it-a-million-times-and-always-done-better story? The only reason I can figure is that it fits in with all the other tired, overused 'noir' cliches with which this film overflows. One more thing: I swear I am gonna go ballistic the next time one character says to another character who has clearly just come out of hair and make-up, "You look like s--t." Talk about hackneyed dialogue! Give me a break...

A 90's Bonnie and Clyde-type flick. This movie is loaded with cliches, inane dialog and lousy acting. The only saving grace is the always superb John Spencer as the lonely, creepy (but strangely loveable) Uncle Mike