Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too Many Preposterous Storylines to Keep this Sleeper Alive, November 13, 2006
Lee Daniels (Monster's Ball, The Woodsmen) doesn't seem to know what to do with this script of a story by William Lipz that has so many incongruities that it simply becomes a muddled mélange of criminal psychology, sociological misfits, and ruminations on the presence of a greater meaning to all the wild madness that eventually drowns the characters. One wonders why such enormously gifted actors such as Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding, Jr. ever accepted roles if they read the script beforehand.
A very mature and cancer-ridden Rose (Helen Mirren, who can truly make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!) is a professional assassin who has raised Mikey (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) to be her co-assassin as well as her very young lover. The two function well as a team and succeed in making a handsome living by killing people to whom they are assigned by a wheelchair-ridden broker. But when one of the marks is big time crime boss Clayton (Stephen Dorff at his most buff to date, eye candy persona) and his wife Vickie (Vanessa Ferlito), all goes well until Rose faces the problem that Vickie is pregnant, a fact that seems to create a sense of guilt and loss and causes her not only to spare her and also to deliver the male child. After calling in a corrupt doctor Dr. Don (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and is lover/nurse Precious (Mo'Nique) to help them out, Rose and Mikey harbor the new mother and child and sequester themselves to raise the child, a life style that allows Mikey to continue his assassin jobs while Rose finds happiness raising the young boy. But of course eventually the evil Clayton disrupts the flow of goodwill, gains information from the Precious after an adulterous office tryst, and it is face to face between Clayton and his wife and son and Rose and Mikey. The ending defies sharing, not only because it would mar the viewer's watching, but it borders on surrealistic bizarre images that are of questionable taste.
During all of this convoluted story we are given flashbacks that attempt to fill in the interstices in the plot: Mikey's relationship to his father, his first killing, Rose's introduction into crime etc. Granted there are some moments of quiet and beauty in all of this mess, but the true reason for sitting through it is the always satisfying presence of Helen Mirren (who actually gets us to believe her preposterous character and motivation) and Cuba Gooding, Jr. (who needs to change agents to get roles more important and conducive to his gifts). With so many fine stories waiting to be made into film one wonders why drivel such as this makes it to the screen on time! Grady Harp, November 06
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18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hit Me With Your Best Shot, October 31, 2006
When Rose (Helen Mirren, PRIME SUSPECT), a professional hitwoman, decides to renege on a contract and let an intended corpse and her baby live, her partner Mikey (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) knows their world is about to change drastically. They've been partners since he was a kid and she was the woman who partnered with his father on professional killings. She taught him everything about the art of killing. Clayton (Stephen Dorff), the crime boss who hired them to kill his wife and unborn child, is a truly psychotic animal. The problem is, Rose is dying of cancer and wants to leave something good behind. And she believes it will be this child.
Lee Daniels directed the movie as well as MONSTER'S BALL, another ethnic thriller that slammed audiences with sex and violence and gave Halle Berry the chance to win an Academy Award. Helen Mirren starred in the PRIME SUSPECT seasons on the BBC as well as THE QUEEN. Cuba Gooding, Jr. has been in several movies, including JERRY MAGUIRE, MEN OF HONOR, and SNOW DOGS. Stephen Dorff starred in BLADE and COVERT ONE: THE HADES FACTOR.
The film showcased developing characters and a telescoped plot that spread over years. Viewers are forced to read between the lines on some of the continuity, and to make judgment calls where the characters and action are concerned. The fascinating thing about the film is the dichotomy of how caring and how cold-blooded Rose and Mikey are, and the horror of Vickie's situation, never truly able to take care of herself or her child. Normally a film like this carries the views along on action alone, but there was a depth of character that allowed for fascination to set it. I simply couldn't stop watching to see how things came out, and on more than one occasion I didn't see a twist coming till it slammed me between the eyes.
There is a lot of sexuality, nudity, and violence in the movie, but it's genuine and real. Not gratuitious. This is a world of violent people, and it's presented with the carnality that's in that world.
SHADOWBOXER is a different kind of crime film. It has a lot of film noir elements, but they're presented in a different mix. If you liked A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, you'll probably enjoy SHADOWBOXER.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outrageous, preposterous and not believable. But I couldn't take my eyes off the screen!, January 20, 2007
This 2005 film has all my favorite elements - sex and violence. It's also fast paced and exciting and, even though the plot is absolutely preposterous, I had no trouble following the twists and turns and constant surprises. It packs a lot of wallop into its 90 minutes of pure wild story, and I was involved and intrigued the entire time.
Hats off to a great cast too! Helen Mirrin, cast as Rose, is paired with Cuba Gooding cast as Mikey, as the most unlikely couple in the world. Not only is the relationship interracial, but she is 22 years older than him and he is her stepson. The screen sizzles with their romantic interludes and there is no doubt they love each other. To top off the outrageousness of it all, they make their living as contract killers. She just happens to be dying of cancer though and has agreed to do one last job.
Enter the crime lord bad guy played by Stephen Dorff who we first see torturing a man he thinks is having an affair with his wife. His wife, played by Vanessa Ferlito, is the one that he wants murdered and of course it is Rose and Mikey who he hires to do the job. Rose, dressed in black, enters the wife's bedroom with the intent of killing her. But the wife just happens to be 9 months pregnant and Helen and Mikey wind up delivering the baby and running away with the mother and child to hide. That's the basis of the plot and it gets even more outrageous as the story goes on. I loved it because it was different and that it dared to show one particular explicit coupling of Rose and Mike that will long be remembered.
This whole film is not believable. But I didn't realize it until after the film was over. While it was going on, I just couldn't take my eyes off the screen.
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