Stiletto (2008)

Truly Dreadful Film

Good concept, poorly executed.

From my favorite movies..

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Stiletto is a brash, ballsy love letter to schit kicking, macho 80' action flicks that fires on booze soaked, bullet ridden cylinders to bring us a pulpy tale of evil gangsters, bent cops, sleazy criminals and the deadly Eastern European femme fatale that ties them all together in the web of violence, corruption and vengeance they have stirred up. They have also stirred up her fury as well, and she descends upon them one by with the forces of hell, and the titular stiletto blade, which gets rammed, sliced and slashed across many a deserving limb or neck. Her name is Raina, and she's portrayed by underrated vixen Stana Katic, who most will know from the TV show Castle, or 24. She's got charisma to spare, and gives the classic female assassin role a careful depth and smouldering hurt that fuels her bloody rampage and gives her brutality a justified edge. The rest of the cast is dominated by the dudes, and director Nick Vallellonga lovingly peppers his roster with an unbelievable handful of iconic 80's and 90's action stars. No throwaway cameos here either; each one is given a fleshed out, memorable slice of noirish material to chomp down on, and each one creates a delightfully nasty rogue to add to their gallery of characters. Raina used to be the the moll of shady Greek mobster Virgil Vadalos (Tom Berenger, drenched in tan lotion, adorned with chains and growling like a disgruntled bulldog. Great work). He has betrayed her in some unforgivable way, unbeknownst to the audience. She near fatally wounds him, and he goes into hiding, sending a corrupt detective (Paul Sloan) and two of his trusted enforcers to flush her out and bring her to him. William Forsythe, in all his sarcastic, blustering glory, plays slick Alex, a cunning Russian thug with more up his sleeve than is laid back personality may suggest. Michael Biehn, in my favourite performance of the film, plays Lee, a psychopathic hothead with a live wire British girlfriend (Amanda Brooks on overdrive) and a penchant for extreme interrogation techniques (there's a scene involving D.B. Sweeney and an electric sander that will make you cringe). Biehn has a colourful career playing energetic live wires, and this is no slouch. He's a happily violent, unapologetically profane, contemptible prick, and lights up the screen with fabulous nihilistic energy. Raina also gets tangled up with other lowlifes and associates in her search for retribution, including scummy night clubbing Tom Sizemore, and the leader of a neo nazi skinhead biker clan played with scary, coked up rage by veteran thespian James Russo, making a limited appearance count by flooding the screen with violent threats and intense glowering. There's also great work from gorgeous Kelly Hu as another cop, Diane Venora from Heat as Berenger's long suffering wife, and underrated Dominique Swain as well. People will undoubtedly whine about misogyny with this one, and hell I wouldn't disagree with them. The male characters are a scary bunch of amoral, bottom feeding motherf____ers who don't think twice about the kind of trauma they inflict on girls. But you know what? Welcome to the real world, where things like that exist, and are reflected in artistic expression, like movies. It's present in the story here, and although necessarily dwelled upon, as dictated by the genre, it's never glorified, however ugly it gets. That's not to say it's completely in bad taste. Hell, the narrative is about one single woman carving a swath of carnage through the men that committed atrocities against her. So there. There's sympathy and feeling to it as well, albeit briefly, as the flashback sequence where we see what happened to her (I won't spoil anything) is handled with care and given space for it to really hit us. That being said, the majority of the movie is an excessively violent, over the top, near cartoonish homage to the hard boiled crime genre. And I'm not kidding about the violence. Some of the damage inflicted rivals anything that you'd see in a Saw movie, and will leave some gagging. But I'd expect nothing less from a film that attempts this kind of 'feel'. Go all the way, or don't even bother trying, I say. There's some nice twists as well, some real thought put into the deceptions, betrayals and arcs of these characters. Katic anchors it like a streamlined feline of righteous anger and uses her natural dark beauty as a deceptive ruse to lure the hard bitten scumbags orbiting her to their certain deaths at the hands of her skill, training and pure hatred. Anyone looking for a down and dirty, bloody bit of vengeful crime fun that makes Kill Bill look mild in comparison owes it to themselves to give this one a try.

Here's a bad female assassin film attempting to be a cross between le femme nikita and the godfather; both far superior movies.A Russian woman(Stana Katic who is actually Croatian and Serbian) as a deadly girl seeking revenge for her sisters' gang rape by a bunch of neo-Nazis somehow tied in with a Greek mafioso type played by veteran actor Tom Berenger in a Brando like Don Corleone lite. what's missing is Coppola and every other aspect of the great Godfather and of course the awesome Marlon Brando.Every gangster cliché is used here from missing money to torture scenes and rival Mexican bad guys in night club shoot out that borders on the ridiculous. I'll give it a 5 as a very average crime- drama with decent acting and a by the numbers script.

So,I skipped out of the office early today and fired up Showitme.Wham, the first movie I ran into was just starting. STILETTO. The cast is filled with names and faces you'll immediately recognize. Hey, that makes the movie worth investing a bit of time to begin with.Plot, who cares to begin with. The movie is dark and dreary with Mob affiliation and peeps getting whacked immediately. Watch it alone with a strong drink or six and in the evening.Some may say the cast is beyond Over-The-Hill and Has-Beens. Tom Berringer as a Greek is a bit of a stretch; Stana Katic(Canadian) is great as the psycho-chick assassin, bent on revenge and killing anyone(males mostly), related to her anger and pain. Whatever.The plot is about revenge...blah-blah-blah! I'd watch her cut vegetables. She can be/was seen on ABC's Castle. If you like hot brunettes, this is for you, plot be damned!I watch a movie to be entertained and escape reality for a couple hours.The cast of retro/comfortable characters let me do just that. Think Terminator, Platoon, etc.There's not social lecture, just revenge, blood and advice. I'm only 45 minutes into the movie and I've already sent an email to a slimy acquaintance that can get ANY movie on DVD while it's still in the theater. The acquaintance loved Stiletto too! Preliminary audiences didn't, obviously. And now, back to the movie and another scotch, with Stana of course.

I had to write this after reading a few reviews. Especially the guy who says he quit watching after 30 Minutes. What do you want a Oscar performance. This movie is better than a lot of the trash with bigger names in it. This movie is non stop action. Very brutal killings done really well. Even a couple ways I've never seen before and I've seen a lot. I just don't want anyone not to see it due to one idiot. What don't you like revenge flicks? Lack of adventure? Sit back and enjoy something different. So what if the story isn't A-1. The short attention span of most will be consumed with this one. A lot of familiar faces. Check it out. Not for the faint at heart or those with a weak stomach