.45 Review

Bottom-Line: .45 is a marginal affair best viewed on a rainy day, or better yet skip it and read a good book!

Big Al is the object of everyone's hatred in .45; he is the foulest of human beings, the lowest form of man.  Big Al is a racist, a gun runner, drug dealer, a larcenist, a stolen property fence, a car thief, and all around tough guy who kills people and beats his girlfriend Kat, occasionally.  And oh yes he is a (very) mean drunk. 

Reilly portrayed by Stephen Dorff, is Big Al's running mate and is not-so-secretly in love with Kat.  And so is Kat best friend Vic-in love with Kat I mean-portrayed by Sarah Strange, and her social worker Liz portrayed by Aisha Tyler. 

Kat, finally tired of being brutalized by Big Al, hatches a plot of revenge using the aforementioned three-who she sleeps with in turn-to frame Big Al for murder most foul.  It seems Kat has a knack for manipulating people to get what she wants.                

.45 takes its sweet time getting around to the actual incident that in turn convinces Kat that perhaps this is not the guy to spend the rest of her life with.  The final beating as depicted on film is brutal an inhuman as all beating are to watch.  I have to give credit to Ms Jovovich for pulling it all off so convincingly.  Her facial expressions and the way she uses her boy to convey emotion are laudable; it's unfortunate that she is stuck doing B movies; if she found to the right production she could perhaps win something and get some recognition.  In any case .45 is a marginal affair best viewed on a rainy day, or better yet skip it and read a good book!      

Further Thoughts:

Is it me or are the movies coming out of Hollywood with settings in large American cities much cruder than they used to be?  There is no longer any pretext of civil discourse, nor respect, or manners.  Foul language, rude and lascivious behavior, brutish men and loose, foul mouthed women seem to be the norm on the streets of America.  Or so Hollywood would have us believe. 

In my opinion far from lending an air of authenticity to films, too much foul language distracts from the enjoyment and or message of a movie.  Don't get me wrong I am no prude, and I have been known to spice up my language now and again with a colorful phrase or two, but my vocabulary strays far afield of the "F" word in everyday use. 

And this is my lasting impression of .45, the language; it hits one over the head like a heavy blunt object from the opening frame.  This is where the movies lead character Kat, portrayed by the aforementioned Ms Jovovich, paddles on and on about the size and use of her boyfriend Big Al's penis, though her term for it is the more urban acceptable c_ck.  It's a word that is thrown around a lot in .45 so watch this one out of ear and eyeshot of the kiddies.