The Bannen Way
The Bannen Way
| 06 January 2010 (USA)
SEASON & EPISODES
  • 1
  • Reviews
    imdb2-5

    Neil Bannen is a tall, good looking, smooth talking, seemingly happy go lucky but self-centered girl chaser. If there's a hot body in his radar, everything else takes a back seat. And while he's been able to squirm out of it in the past, he's not between a rock and a hard place with a choice to make about going the straight path or even deeper in a mob....There is a sexy, beautiful girl who walks into his life and is a mystery. Colorful bad guys and gals, practically cartoonish at times. There is also a family angle thrown in... His father is a cop, his uncle is a mobster. Something happened and the question is where do the two intertwine and what will it take to unravel this mystery and a resolution. He's got a little high tech geek cadre who help with his jobs. And did I mention there are a ton of characters and that backstory and character development are really not a priority in this film?I'm giving this a very generous 5, since the performances are all mostly good from a surprising cast that has several well known names and faces you've seen before. There are a number of chuckles, the actors are well cast and do well with their roles and the movie is not boring... although it does become noticeably more dull after the shiny, grinning veneer of our lead character rubs off and he's left to being a confused shnook that must parade himself between numerous characters to wind up where he started.The problem is that you've seen everything before and the film takes a few too many liberties like you'd see on TV, where characters can do things without consequence and walk away just for laughs, forgotten long before the story continues with another episode next week. This movie finds itself in between. Villains are well acted but they are cartoonish, over the top, and you're not sure whether they are supposed to be part of a parody on cliches. If you've seen Guy Ritchie's "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch" you know instantly that so has this director. I was also reminded of "Burn Notice" to reasonable degree. He gets a lot of production value out of the film, which looks good for the budget. And while there are some chuckles and the movie moves you along, it becomes all too clear that it's just a series of events tied together with the script, each resulting in some unforseen even that will descend to save our heroes and roll them into the next set piece.So I'll give the team high grades for effort, a reasonably entertaining if very familiar work but not the thriller you'd expect to enjoy seeing again.

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    yeodawg

    hot chicks and a semi charming anti-hero. Bannen a thief who's father is a prison warden, and uncle is a king mob-boss has a weakness for the ladies and the cards, both which plays fast and loose with. He struts around with his charming smile as both his shield and sword. but will it be enough to protect and kill the 3 hot (KILL BILL) assassins out to do him in. With the help of another hot thief (Who I think is his sister) we'll find out. I'm not done watching it, but I will watch it. Anyhoo that charming smile fades and cracks under the harsh light. So does his slick veneer, as we see he's just a scared little boy who wants his mommy. But he does have a lot of rough sex with hot babes.

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    Johan Jongepier

    I'm watching the movie right now and I'm now half the way. But it looks to me that the creators of this movie watch too much Guy Richie and Quintin Tarrantino movies and wanted to make such movies too. So they copied their style, their stories, their type of characters and made this movie. It doesn't look original. It would be if the movie was shot 15 years ago, but now a days it isn't. Annyway, the positive thing about the movie is that it looks cool and sexy, but anything else is copied too much from Richie, Tarrantino and who else. If the people who made this would have add something new or original too it, it would have been something. I don't know if I want to continue watching the movie any further.

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    equazcion

    This movie is a nightmarish amalgamation of hackneyed premises too numerous to list in their entirety, but here are a few: Our hero/anti-hero is a slick charmer who's indebted to several crime bosses at once, coordinates elaborate plans to do the impossible with the help of his computer geek sidekick/guardian angel, sleeps with lots of women and narrowly avoids getting killed by some of them, and of course the cops want him too. This film would've at least been a neatly-packaged directorial debut had it stuck to all that, but it got greedy: On top of all those other clichés, we then get a twist wherein we learn that nothing was what it seemed. That's when I started getting antsy, wishing the movie would end, which is never a good sign. Some movies get made because someone has an idea and wants to see it come to life. Then there are the pictures that get made because someone with the right resources decided they simply wanted to make a movie, so they proceed to try and formulate some sort of film by borrowing elements that have proved successful in other films. This is one of the latter, and the result in this case is bland, mild entertainment, at best.Nevertheless, I get the feeling that everyone involved has the talent, even if the drive is missing. As The Oracle would say, "You've got the gift, but it looks like you're waiting for something". The film is shot with an unoriginal yet well-executed style. The same staff/cast with a decent idea that everyone actually cared about could probably pull off a respectable movie. This unfortunately wasn't it.

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