Customer Reviews

Rancid

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Rancid (2004) is an intriguing tale of suspense that immediately draws you into a dense web of passion, deception, and murder, that centers on a group of former college classmates in New York. Directed by Jack Ersgard, with the support of the Swedish Film Institute, much of the film was actually shot on location in Sweden.

A rather basic story is made much more interesting, by time shifting so that the plot is revealed in a series of flashbacks, spliced with events in the present. This is not an usual approach, but it works very well here, as the film opens with James Hayson (Matthew Settle) in a house where someone has been murdered, trying to evade detection by the police. Hayson is discovered, but manages to get out of the house and make a desperate escape into the night.

Previous to these events, Hayson, a struggling writer facing financial crisis, attended a class reunion held at the home of Crispin Klein (Currie Graham), a rich and successful ex-classmate. Hayson is accompanied by his classmate Angela (Siena Goines), and runs into Andy Fell (Patrik Ersgard), another classmate who is now a New York City police detective. Hayson's one time girlfriend Monica (Fay Masterson) is married to Klein, but she rekindles a relationship with Hayson, which soon finds the writer in Klein's bedroom while he is away.

Klein is a jealous man with things to hide. He routinely strikes his wife, and employs hired muscle to get things done. After Monica receives a severe beating, Hayson finds himself in Klein's house armed with a kitchen knife, bent on committing homicide. Things however, do not go as planned, and Hayson unexpectedly finds himself a fugitive wanted for a murder he did not commit. He turns to Angela and Detective Fell for help, putting them at risk, as the police investigation closes in.

With a number of twists and lots of deceit and misdirection, Rancid is a dark intriguing journey where exactly what has happened is kept hidden for as long as possible. The flashback plot structure helps facilitate this, and probably improves the impact of the film, which contains several major surprises and some sudden deaths. The film has good production values, with interior sets that pass for a dark and dreary looking New York, and the acting is very solid. If passion based crime dramas interest you, this one might prove to be an interesting find.

This movie has everything!! Very well acted (no crappy actors here), great story, keeps you guessing, good plot, very original, great directing, this movie rates a 10 in my book. This is not a horror flick but a fantastic thriller/mystery. The movie flowed & kept my interest all the way. If you like mystery thrillers then this is the flick 2 pick. Fantastic!! Schroeder (DJ WACK "O") Publisher/Owner of Cult Movies Magazine

This movie surprised me. It is much better than I thought it would be. I give it three stars because there are flaws in it's plot line and it could benefit from having one or the other scene edited out, but that having been said, it remains surprisingly good. It has enough twists to keep the viewer's interest and the actors are good enough to make a viewer care about their characters. It's worth the purchase price. The directing for the most part is sharp - as is the cinematography. If you're in the mood for a good little "cop movie", you could do far worse than this one.

This movie kept you guessing all the way till the end. None of the characters are really what they seem. It is worth renting.

Well... Either the reviewers on here are all being very sarcastic or they are true morons. This was the worst piece of garbage I've ever seen. I turned it off after 40 minutes. The two cops look and act like cartoon characters, and the writing is beyond amateurish. And seeing a perfectly clean butcher knife laying in a big puddle of blood in the first 2 minutes (supposedly the murder weapon), I knew it was made by an idiot. They couldn't even put like, I don't know, a little smear of blood on it? Or a few drops or something to make it realistic? Unbelievable to me.

NOT WHAT I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE, I WAS LOOKING FOR MONSTERS AND ROTTEN FLESH! THIS MOVIE HAD ME ON THE EDGE OF MY BEAN BAG FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. IT'S ONE OF THOSE WHERE YOU GO - "WHAT???." THIS MOVIE IS DEAD SERIOUS BUT THE ENDING MADE ME CHUCKLE. SORT OF LIKE ON BRUCE WILLIS'S ARMEGEDDON - "WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH A GUN IN SPACE".