Arsenal (2017)

Thanks for the memories!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The simplest way to put this film is simply slow and dumb.One would expect a little more from such a cast, but this is not the case here.Had this been an indie film with amateur actors, I would have rated it higher. But all I can give it now is a 5/10.

I should have followed my intuition when i saw this in the video store. As i looked at the jacket of the DVD i thought 'this is one of those shows where a couple big name actors are used to bring people in to watch the show but it won't be good'. Whelp, i risked it and i shouldn't have and won't again. Usually, Cusack doesn't 'sell himself out' as much as Cage does. Both, must have done this strictly for the money and ease of doing it. There wasn't any good acting, the script was terrible. All worse than a joke. People were hit with baseball bats and crow bars that would have killed them with one of any of the blows but they were hardly scratched. Dialogue was trite and contrived. As i watched it i realized this show could have been great if Tarentino did it or someone other than whoever did this. I thought of Nicholas Cage in 'Leaving Las Vegas' which i thought was so great. Perhaps, after his divorce he could no longer act. He, truly, was so bad in this he'd have been better off not doing it. Money had to be the reason but , as far as i'm concerned , i won't be interested in his stuff anymore. He tried to play a character he did well 20 years ago but he simply can't act anymore. John Cusack slept through his part and i've seen him do this character in other films. A disgrace. If there were a different director and different actors and different dialogue and different movie this may have been worth seeing. I give it a minus 10 if i could. I have only myself to blame. Nicholas Cage hasn't done a could movie in eons and Cusack isn't much behind. I think, from looking at this show, they are has beens.

I came all the way to IMDb to write a review because the film was very, very awful.SPOILER ALERT here! I can sum up just why it was so bad...A normal town has a kids video arcade, and through a door in the rear of the arcade is a grimy strip club where Cage sits, doing cocaine off a table. When he's not sitting there, he seems to always have someone to tie up and murder down a plastic lined hallway between the strip club and the arcade.2 brothers grow up nearby and use the arcade in their youth. The older brother, when in his teens, witnesses Cage murdering some random guy in this plastic lined hallway, and then he spends the entire rest of his life mingling with Cage apparently. The younger brother becomes a successful construction company owner. The whole entire movie is about Cage taking the older brother hostage in his plastic hallway, for a multi hundred thousand dollar ransom that he wants from the younger brother.The only reason I was able to give this a 1 out of 10 is for the notion that the brothers were still brothers, and the younger one of course goes on a manhunt to get his brother back. Despite being kind of a screw up, the older brother then learns to finally appreciate his family after his kidnapping.I didn't even think the cinematography was great. I hated the camera aggressively panning and zooming to make a guy driving his ford truck away from his house all the more dramatic. I found all of the display of blood spraying and blood splatter very unsettling.Someone who loves seeing blood would probably like this movie. That's the only artistic value this movie has.

So. What can i say. If you like shaky camera work ANY time anyone moves. this is the film for you. Atmosphere. Grit. South. these are the three things that move this movie. I love John Cusak, and Nicholas cage. cage gets 10 minutes (maybe less) Cusak gets 5 minutes. "entourage guy" nice acting! all the rest is just, Meh.... Good movie to pass the time (1.5 speed on VLC) Some shots are WAY too long (kid walking in arcade????) but... making movies is hard......