A pair of sociopath killers take on the police and the mob in order to make one last big score. Red is an aging scam-artist who's just been released from prison together with Ronnie, a young and not-so-bright hoodlum who is easily manipulated. Their new business is to organize fake-money sales and then kill the buyer to take his money; but when Ronnie kills an undercover secret service agent, his partner Jimmy Mercer vows revenge and is given one week to catch the killers before being transferred. The film begins with Red Diamond, an ex-con(Dennis Hooper),recently freed from jail . He along with Ronnie(Viggo Mortensen), his pal from prison, undergo a new business, an operation about money forgery. But the issue go wrong and Ronnie murders an undercover agent. His partner a two-fisted named Jimmy Mercer(Wesley Snipes) together with another policemen(Dan Hedaya) swear discover the killer. Meanwhile, Red Diamond deals with mobster(Tony Lo Bianco) whom he owes some money. The story continues the trail some people after another attempting to get close over tracks of Red and Ronnie and there relationships with girlfriends(Valerie Perrine, Christine Elise) and lovers(Lolita Davidovich).<br/><br/>The picture contains action, suspense, several shootouts, bloody killings and lots of violence. It's exciting and tense, at time no too much interesting cop thriller. The story is plenty of firepower, intrigue, action packed and good performances. Wesley Snipes is fine as tough cop and excellent Dennis Hooper as likable delinquent and Viggo Mortensen as cold killer.Magnificent secondary cast with a plethora of known actors, such as Seymour Cassel, Tony Lo Bianco,James Tolkan, Jonathan Banks, Paul Gleason, among others. Atmospheric musical score made by means of synthesizer and fitting to action by John DÁndrea and Cory Lerios. The motion picture is written and directed by James B Harris. He's a notorious producer, he produced Stanley Kubrick's three awesome films(The killing, Paths of glory and Lolita)and occasionally director of thrillers(Cop, Fast walking)and another genres(Bedford incident). Rating : Acceptable and passable. The movie will like to Wesley Snipes fans and thriller buffs. Maddeningly pointless violence is what killed off martial arts movies in the 1980s. Bruce Lee, it cannot be argued, is the singular individual who opened our eyes to the beauty of martial arts with his movies in the early 1970s. Bruce Lee's stories, unlike those in the same genre that followed him, would have a slow build-up to a great fight towards the end of the movie. This is why his movies remain the standard of great martial arts movies to this day. The fate of subsequent generation of martial arts movies lavishly crowded with violence is now threatening Hollywood productions because of gratuitous depiction of violence.<br/><br/>Take a step back and consider both the first and second parts of the Godfather trilogy, arguably the best storyline ever put into film! What makes The Godfather so appealing is its depiction of implied, rather than expressed, violence. Truly! The director, Francis Ford Coppola, would later disclose that he and the script writer, Mario Puzo, were under tremendous pressure from the producers of the first movie to add more violence to the script or he, Coppola, risked being fired from completing the directing the movie. Those who have read the original novel by Puzo would agree that the book on which the story was based is much more suspenseful and entertaining than the movie even with less violence.<br/><br/>So it is that a great movie is not so much about the amount of TNT, pyrotechnics, blood and gore that are freely depicted but much more about the story of ordinary guys, in this case crooks and law enforcers, whose actions and plots are motivated by the mundane things in life that we can all relate to such as strained interpersonal relationships, debts, deadlines, job insecurity (as in the case of the two police officers in this story),etc. which make up the story - a great story, in my opinion.<br/><br/>To me this is a great movie told with measured and tamed violence. Granted that the story it aimed to tell should have been accompanied by other parallel stories criss-crossing the main plot over an added 30 minutes or so because at approximately 90 it came up too short for a good time frame.<br/><br/>The cast is great (Dennis Hopper, Seymour Cassel, Lolita Davidovich, Viggo Mortensen and, of course,Wesley Snipes who radically departs from the portrait of the apostle of gore like in the Blade trilogy earlier. The character played by Mr. Snipes is one we can all relate to and, thus, immerse ourselves in the story for maximum entertaining pleasure. Each one of the listed actors gave a better-than-average performance to make this movie one I expect to watch a few more times. <br/><br/>The soundtrack is great.
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