Customer Reviews

Swap

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Wow, where to start? Pretty much everything about this DVD is a lie. On the back the DVD says "Guaranteed Superior Quality" - HA! What a laugh! This DVD pretty much has the feel of a bootleg. The picture and sound are terrible. The picture is constantly shaking. There's no address to write to this Gemstone Entertainment. The DVD doesn't even list what the movie is rated or when it came out.

On the back of the DVD it says "Bonus Info: Biography / Filmography / Trivia / Scene Access / Interactive Menus" - LIES! LIES! LIES! LIES! LIES! There isn't even a scene selection! The menu screen is just blank and says "Play Movie".

Then, of course there is the extreme false advertising which tries to make it seem as if Robert De Niro is the main character who is plotting revenge for his brother's death when in fact De Niro plays the brother, who dies at the beginning of the movie!

The cover photo has a picture of De Niro that looks like it's from the late eighties or nineties when his footage was filmed in 1969! Doesn't this qualify as false advertising? You can't put a picture from a completely different movie on the cover of a DVD!!

Do NOT buy this DVD! No matter what you think. Even if you're a De Niro buff, like myself, it will just get you mad. This DVD is a disgrace. Gemstone Entertainment should be ashamed of themselves. In the meantime, I'm going to try and find an address for the company so I can write to them to find out exactly what this "Guaranteed Superior Quality" means.

Gemstone Entertainment = Cheap Lying Dirty Thieves

It can be interesting and fun to watch a great actor's early work. But this film doesn't make it on any count. Also known as "Sam's Song," even the most devout DeNiro fan will be disappointed with "The Swap." Although he's top-billed and featured prominently in the poster art (for obvious marketing reasons), DeNiro's character gets killed in the first five minutes and we only see him intermittently in flashbacks. What follows is a roughly shot low-budget film with a marginally engrossing story and porn-quality acting (with the exception of DeNiro, who does fine with what little he gets). Who knows? Maybe director John Shade instructed his actors to play the movie as porn (DeNiro's character directed porn flicks) but I don't think this film is that sophisticated. Further, the DVD transfer is one of the worst you'll ever see, with film scratches and bad sound intact; it looks like they transferred an old VHS right onto DVD.

If he'd had the lead, it might have been a more interesting film. But since he does so little, it can't really qualify as an early DeNiro film like "Mean Streets." And unlike "Mean Streets," it doesn't qualify as the early work of a great director either. It's not even bad enough to be a must-see bad movie, it's just bad; a waste of money and 90 minutes.

I have to give this movie one star to get this review posted. This movie doesn't deserve a star, it deserves a rotting lemon. This movie ranks up there with the Blair Witch Project as being a terrible movie. I got suckered in by this one. Let's see, actors sucked, plot sucked, quality sucked and now my opinion of John Broderick and Gemstone Entertainment has lowered itself into the SUCK relm. They should send me a check for my purchase price and pain and suffering. Does anyone know what the ending was supposed to mean? I fell asleep:(

I bought the video because of a very misleading advertisement for this film. I am a great DeNiro fan, but this was terrible. The picture on the box leads you to believe this movie was made some time in the 1980's - it was made in 1969. The story synopsis is not only wrong, but it names DeNiro's character Johnny (possibly confusing it with his character in Mean Streets), but his name is Sammy, and he dies in the first scene, only to return in flashbacks. The acting is terrible, the story is terrible. If your looking for an old DeNiro movie, get Mean Streets, this one is not worth your time or money!

I find it funny that everyone posting a review here feels betrayed and used, probably because they had to pay 9 or 10 dollars for this awful movie. I payed less than a buck at Wal-mart for this, so I knew it had to suck. And it did. But I found its crappiness so amusing that I like it for that sheer fact, especially since it was no skin off of my nose to see it. That doesn't do it for most people.

I'll admit, it was a dirty, dirty trick to make it look as if Deniro was the star of the movie when he's not. The level of false advertizing should be illegal. The synopsis doesn't even mention that the main character it's talking about is not DeNiro at all. I believe most everything about this movie was bad, though I still liked DeNiro whenever he was onscreen.

Reasons to buy this movie:
1. If you are amused by crappy filmmaking.

2. If you can find it for a dollar - no more. I suggest Wal-mart, though I hate giving them business.

3. There is this great sceen about 2 or 3 minutes where DeNiro is pretending to shoot people on the beach. He rolls around and acts silly. Its worth the dollar.

Reasons not to buy this movie:
1. If it's more than a dollar. That's how bad this movie is.

2. If you do not have a sense of humor and are serious about your filmwatching.

I've got nothing else.

This film is a re-edited film. There was a film called "Sam's Song," starring DeNiro and he was in the entire film. That movie a snoozer, and the director edited the DeNiro scenes from Sam's Song into "Swap."

Find "Sam" for an example of early Bob!

I am not one to waste my time by writing reviews here, but after watching "The Swap", I feel it is my duty as a fellow human being to warn you of how this movie will utterly suck the life-force out of you without mercy. By simply reading the reviews of others here, you can pretty much get an idea of what you will expect should you happen to make the decision of buying or renting it.

However, what I would like to touch on is of how disappointed I am in the desperate attempts on behalf of the distribution / marketing company to get fellow DeNiro fans out there to actually buy this movie....

1) "Never judge a book by its cover"... how true that is when it comes to this movie. They market the DVD cover with a somewhat recent 1990's portrait of DeNiro, when in fact, this film was obviously made in the mid-late 70's (yes, the movie was not even properly dated).
2) DVD features??... there were none, despite what the backcover claims. Simply an introduction screen with the large words "Play Movie" as your *only* option.
3) The movie synopsis is very, very misleading in wanting you to think that DeNiro is the main star, when in reality, his total screen time (initial scenes and flashbacks) total less than 10 or so minutes.

So, having said that... shame on you, Gemstone Entertainment. Shame on you for your desperate attempts to mislead individuals out of their money. With shady marketing practices such as this, I would not be surprised to see your company go down the drain someday soon.

I saw it in the supermarket for $6, so I thought 'hey, it's got Deniro in it, so it can't be that bad'. It was that bad. It's old, unclear, and a terrible movie. Deniro is not even the main actor. Stupid plot, lousy acting, and a horrendeous ending. Don't waste your time and/or money!

The description on the cover of the video box leads you to beleive that this is an action story with De Niro battling the mob to save his brother, except it is De Niro who is killed in the beginning of the movie and the rest is flashbacks with him in different scenes. Then De Niro's older brother gets out of jail and tries to find his killer. The Plot is unoriginal and the acting is absolutely horrible (exept for some of the scenes with De Niro). Unfortunately, even De Niro can't make this film rise above anything but bad, bad, bad!

I love de niro, and I love movies from all genres and all time periods but this movie was awful. I bought it because I found it for 5.88 and a lot of places didn't have it in their warehouse so I figured it might be rare. The box of the dvd makes it out to be a de niro film which its not. After the first scene when he is killed within the first 3 minutes I looked at the case to see if De niro was a star. The story line is awful, right from the beginning you know what will happen in the end and if you do watch this movie pay attention to the end it just isn't real. The last 15 minutes is absurd. The dvd case said there was extra features such as a trivia, filmography and biographies there wasn't even a scene selection area. The movie quality looks like it came straight from a vhs and and the sound is awful. If you are a de niro fan and you want to see this movie go for it, but just know what its actually like and don't go by the box cover.