Customer Reviews

The Death And Life Of Bobby Z

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This movie deserves more respect as far as an action flick is concerned it is excelent. Now lets not compare it to the godfather or some other masterpiece. It is what it is a good entertaining action movie.

I liked this movie, it has attitude. Kept my interest easily, good acting and good plot.

I'm a big fan of writer Don Winslow. I really enjoyed his book The Death and Life of Bobby Z. So I got a copy of this movies to see what the film version was like. The acting was wooden (even with a good actor like Lawrence Fishburne), but for the first half of the movie, it kept pretty much to the book. After it started deviating, the movie quickly went downhill.
My suggestion is get a copy of the book, and forget the movie.

I actually enjoyed the movie. I will admit that I felt lost in the beginning but as the plot unfolded, things started to make more sense. I believe the director intended for the viewer to discover the reason behind the chaos in real time, as the character did. In other other words, I don't think it was supposed to make sense until the end. Once the entire plot was revealed, the motivation behind the actions of the main characters became more clear.

Though not a blockbuster, the action was enjoyable and the some of the the scenery was absolutely beautiful. If you like "colorful" characters, off-beat humor, and a plot that is not "spoon-fed", you may want to give Bobby Z a spin.

How this story of freeing a deadly criminal from prison to act as a stand-in for an at large criminal (Bobby Z) to bring revenge and closure to corruption on every level of the playing field can continue to be reproduced ad infinitum will remain a puzzle. This tired, poorly acted, hyper kinetic desert film wastes the talent of some good actors, gives plenty of killings to watch, and then introduces counterfeit kindness as a reason for making the film, is a movie to avoid.

Paul Walker is the released Bobby Z look-alike who will be freed from his life in prison by Laurence Fishburne's cop image if he merely shows up in Mexico as bait for drug lord Joaquin de Almeida's hostage demands for Fishburne's partner. Of course it all goes wrong at the exchange point, allowing the fake Bobby Z to find a female interest (Olivia Wilde) as well as a little boy (J.R. Villarreal) who is supposedly the son of the real Bobby Z (and therefore is taken in by the fake Bobby Z), and the rest is just a messy chase sequence and series of killings and kidnappings. The bad guys outnumber the good guys, and, well the rest is yesterday's sandwich. Not recommended even if there is nothing else on the shelves to rent! Grady Harp, September 07

Tim Kearney is an incarcerated former Marine who is offered freedom by DEA agent Tad Gruzsa in exchange for impersonating recently-late drug lord Bobby Z. Things don't go as planned, however, and Kearney ends up on the run with Bobby Z's 12-year-old son. While it's no worse than much of the action movie junk that makes it to theatres, Bobby Z, originally entitled The Death and Life of Bobby Z, is a action thriller with Tim Kearney (Walker) as the hero. Filled with head scratching twists and cornball dialogue, this is not exactly a brilliant movie. Yet it's got a slick look and at least a few passably enjoyable action scenes. This movie is funny, entertaining and I enjoyed it.

I happened to catch this movie on satellite and liked it so well I couldn't wait to order it from Amazon. The price was really within my budget and the service fast and acceptable as well.

I loved it - I watched it twice. Lots of twists and turns, you have to pay attention. I don't see how anyone can say this movie is Bobby ZZZZZZZ!

This movie is action packed and very good. Keeps anyone interested all the way through. No damage to case and excellent condition with fast delivery. Recomment to anyone.

Paul Walker has picked some pretty good movies to be in, and I had all the confidence in the world for Laurence Fishburne. So I just can't believe this movie is THIS bad. I've been to a shooting range once in my life, and I can guarantee I have better aim than all of the men in this film put together. NOBODY has this bad of aim. These folks are running right up to each other and missing shots. They could be as close as I am to my laptop right now and STILL miss each other, and when they're not missing shots, they're running out of bullets after shooting once or twice. Does anybody load a full round? Speaking of up close, I don't think there's a woman alive who could look a guy she's had sex with dead in the face and not realize he has a new face. How do you NOT recognize someone you've had sex with? And when they don't know anything about the way you two have sex, why does that not raise a big, HUGE flag? The man even cuddled with her, and she still didn't know. (Maybe at the end of the film she told him she fooled him. I didn't stick around to find out. But if she didn't recognize him, why would you have sex with a man not knowing who in the world he is and why he's faking like he's someone else?!)

I do understand that if you described Paul Walker and Jason Lewis in a lineup, they could be mistaken for the same person, but the two do NOT look alike. I can tell one from the other regardless of watching "Sex and the City" so I'm watching this film thinking, "You're kidding me." How is it not one of these people who knows Bobby Z well can tell the difference in his voice (besides the guy on the boat) or notice he has a whole new face? After an hour I gave up on this film. I just can't do it.

Spoiler alert: When you set up a bomb and open the door to blow yourself up, that's it for me. You're dumb and you deserve to be dead (in the film). After I saw that, I stopped the movie.