Product Details

• Actors: Bruce Willis, Forest Whitaker, Malin Akerman, Nikki Reed, Deborah Ann Woll
• Directors: Aaron Harvey
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: ANCHOR BAY
• DVD Release Date: December 20, 2011
• Run Time: 93 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B005R08HJY
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,325 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From The Executive Producers of MACHETE and TRUE GRIT

Bruce Willis, Malin Akerman (Watchmen), Nikki Reed (The TWILIGHT Saga), Deborah Ann Woll (''True Blood'') and Academy Award® winner Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) star in the tough, sexy story of three hit women sent to rural Louisiana to intercept a big money dope deal. But when they get to the near-empty roadside café, bullets blast apart what was supposed to be a simple transaction. It could be a huge, bloody misunderstanding but it might also be a deadly double-cross. Shea Whigham (''Boardwalk Empire'') and Academy Award® nominee Brad Dourif (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) co-star in this intense crime thriller with a killer twist.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Another Disciple Trapped In The Church Of Tarantino: A Solid Film That Lacks An Original Voice, December 9, 2011

By 

K. Harris "Film aficionado" (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Catch .44 [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

I had heard and read so many scathingly critical comments flung at writer/director Aaron Harvey's "Catch .44" that I was convinced it must surely be a disaster of epic proportion. I'm not sure what anyone else anticipates when sitting down to a straight-to-DVD endeavor, but my expectations tend to run fairly low. Thus, I was actually pleasantly surprised by this film. I found it quite entertaining in its own right with a number of noteworthy performances. Harvey shows a deft hand when handling dialogue and that ends up being a saving grace to the movie. My fundamental issue with the production has little to do with entertainment value and almost everything to do with originality. Like so many young filmmakers, Harvey clearly aspires to be the next Tarantino (and why not?), but "Catch .44" is so derivative that it begs to be judged in an unfavorable light. Even the DVD packaging references the sublime "Reservoir Dogs." I could forgive the similarities in structure and theme such as the chronologically scrambled narrative, overlapping timelines, the eclectic assortment of outlaws, and the clever/cool conversations that have little to do with the plot. But from moment to moment, every sequence in the film seems to have been lifted from another movie and cobbled together. Seriously. For every individual scene, I could name a comparable scene that served the same purpose from an earlier and similar movie.

Taking that out of the equation for a moment, I actually thought the film was successful enough. Despite the presence of Bruce Willis in a minor role (though you'd never guess that from his huge head on the DVD cover), the actual lead of "Catch. 44" is up-and-comer Malin Akerman. Akerman plays a former strip club hostess and pickpocket who was drafted into a larger criminal enterprise by Willis. She and two gal pals (including True Blood's Deborah Ann Woll) have a late night assignment at a rural diner where the score looks to be a load of drugs and cash. But, as you might guess, things don't go exactly to plan and the story shifts into flashbacks to see how we arrived at this point. Forest Whitaker and his numerous accents are on hand, as well, as an enigmatic and dangerous stranger. Before the night is over, the diner will host a series of confrontations and it remains to be seen if anyone will be left unscathed. It's all fun and amusing with appropriate twists and turns, I just felt like I'd seen it all before.

The cast is actually quite good. In general, I really like Akerman who is known largely for her comedic work (various romantic comedies, TV's The Comeback, the fantastic Childrens Hospital, Funny or Die Presents...) as well as her sultry turn in "Watchmen." Here, she displays a toughness that is unexpected and believable. Never heard of her? She's got some high-profile pictures in the offing including the adaptation of Broadways "Rock of Ages" and the biopic of porn star Linda Lovelace in which she is the lead. Whitaker seems to be having a good time as the unstable powder keg who somehow fits into the plot puzzle. Looking for Willis, though? He's got a couple of scenes and is amusing enough as the standard crime boss oddball. The girls actually listen to a Bruce Willis song from the eighties and mention the actor by name, but the gag ends up being a bit too jokey for my taste. Clearly Harvey has an ear and can write, he just needs to develop his own voice. But for now, "Catch .44" ends up being another in a long line of Tarantino wannabes, although a reasonably entertaining one. KGHarris, 12/11.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A very entertaining action mystery in the vein of "Pulp Fiction". Nothing outstanding but still very much worth seeing. I say B+, December 4, 2011

By 

Tony Heck "Follow me on Twitter!!! - @panther... (Belgrade, MT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Catch .44 (DVD)

"I worked with you for seven years...always liked you, always looked after you, but I never trusted you." Tess (Akerman) and her friends have one simple task. Meet a trucker at a restaurant and take the truck from him. Things do not go as planned and secrets begin to come out, as well as bullets. This movie was a surprise. After watching "Set-up" with Bruce Willis (who was in it for about 5 minutes) I was skeptical. While he is not the main star in this one either this one actually is a pretty good movie. This movie reminded me a lot of "Pulp Fiction" in the way that it jumps back and forth all the time until you have every part of the story. Akerman and Whitaker do a great job in this and for someone like Malin Akerman to take a role in an action movie and pull it off as good as she does is also a surprise. While not a top notch action movie this one is still very much worth while and will not let you down. Overall, a very good movie that is well worth your time. I give it a B+.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars FAKE GRINDHOUSE COMPROMISE, December 3, 2011

By 

Michael Ledo (Windsor, SC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Catch .44 (DVD)

The title "Catch .44" appears to be some clever play on the phrase Catch 22, i.e. as in a double catch 22 as well as a .44 caliber bullet. The movie really isn't that clever, but pretends to be. I was confused by the beginning. The film opens with Bruce Willis (Mel) talking to an unseen person who he has worked with for seven years but doesn't trust...cue credits. The music is Mexican-Cowboy grindhouse stuff during the credits. We see Tes driving...Then we see three women in a diner, they are talking about living in a man's world , the apparent theme of the film, when they attempt to rob the place and one of them gets shot...more credits and the music is "Fox on the Run." We have ventured into some kind of "Pulp Fiction" diner scene flashback scenario. The names on the girls flash on the screen by their face, which has come to be the rule rather than the exception in modern action films.

Tes, the leader of the group, works at an exotic dance bar. They work for a drug dealer named Mel. The whole diner scene we saw earlier is about a drug deal. While there are cell phones, Mel talks on a red rotary dial phone to Tes in a remote phone booth, apparently something that still exists in Louisiana.
While the girls are driving to the restaurant, there is some subplot action that is going on that appears unrelated.

The movie swaps back and forth between the restaurant shoot-out action and various flashbacks leading up to the scene. The film is supposed to be a Tarantino style grindhouse, but doesn't really work that well as the characters aren't that great. There is no clever grindhouse dialouge. The flashback scenes don't work that well. Forest Whitaker uses different accents during the movie which doesn't appear to be by design. The movie lacked great action.

F-bomb, sex talk, brief strip club nudity