Tortured (2008)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Awesome Movie

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

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Kevin Cole, an FBI agent, is asked the supreme sacrifice. He must endure torture in order to penetrate one of the most dangerous crime syndicates operating in America. Its leader is the elusive Ziggy, who has not been seen in quite some years. This man controls almost everything, or at least, one is led to believe in the Los Angeles area. Ziggy's henchmen put Kevin through the test through torture and intimidation, something he passes with flying colors.Now, a few months later, he has a new name, Jimmy Vaughn. He is sent to torture and get information from Archie Green,an accountant that double crossed Ziggy. Green owes ten million dollars to the head of the group that he diverted when he worked for the man. Archie, a black man is put through the ringer. Jimmy goes on to torture Green, which includes pulling his finger nails and toe nails hoping to get a confession.Kevin's present job as a criminal enforcer is not shared with his wife Becky. At the same time, his own father, Jack Cole, who is the head of the FBI, comes to keep track of what his son is doing to find Ziggy, hoping that Archie Green will break down to confess the whereabouts of a man that no one knows where he is. Jack Cole is interested because as a young agent, he himself had dealings with the criminal the FBI is after.The trouble with "Tortured", written and directed by Nolan Lebovitz, is a sense of disorientation. Probably the creator wanted to keep the audience confused as the narrative goes back and forth not making clear what is behind the action. Frankly, once the secret comes out, it is hard to accept most of what has come before because it might make sense in the world of make believe the movies create, but in reality, not even the most brave FBI agents would endure what Kevin Cole does. Working undercover is one thing, to be beaten senselessly in order to penetrate a crime organization is too much to ask of anyone, but once the viewer overcomes that unreal experience, the film does entertain, although the ending is just hard to accept.Cole Hauser seen in the double role of Kevin Cole and Jimmy Vaughn shows he has what it takes to penetrate the organization to get to Ziggy. Laurence Fishburne shows up as Archie Green the man that dared to steal from the terrible Ziggy. He has some good moments, but the actor has done better before. James Cromwell is seen as Jack Cole, a man with a dark past. Unfortunately, one does not get to see much of lovely Emmanuelle Chriqui, who plays Becky, Kevin's wife.It appears "Tortured" went directly to DVD as we do not remember having heard about its commercial release.

I liked the movie but the ending really really ruined it. It was like they discovered there wasn't much movie budget left and they needed to quickly wrap things up and close the story:********** Major spoiler **********Kevin convinces his FBI colleagues to start a rescue operationZiggy has FBI inside information and knows there is a rescue operation comingArchie Green, the person Kevin is torturing is killed off and his body is dumped in a bag under the torture roomZiggy takes plastic surgery to take Archie's place at the FBI rescue operationZiggy let his three henchmen get killed by the FBI, somehow this fits in master planZiggy can somehow predict the future and knows in this FBI operation he isn't going to get hurt first by Kevin before he gets rescuedZiggy can also predict Kevin's dad takes them three to another place where he can steal a gun from KevinZiggy then like all criminal masterminds do explains how he had this planned for years, even watched Kevin grow upZiggy wants to shoot Kevin in front of his dad's eyes, just to get back at Kevin's dad for killing his daughterKevin's dad jumps in front of the bullet that was meant for KevinZiggy then tells Kevin how the are alike and how Kevin should join his evil empireZiggy can predict and plan all these things but somehow he can't predict that he can't convince Kevin and that Kevin will want to kill himThe writers knew this was a ridiculous ending and try to save it by a mysterious ending: Kevin walks out of the FBI office and gets a phone call "I've got a letter from Ziggy, i'm supposed to answer to you, am I speaking to the right person?"The ending is so ridiculous that it really ruined what could have been a very good movie.Here a some major flaws:Ziggy is (almost) a billionaire: 25 years ago he already had lots of shops, restaurants, etc... all started with his drug money. If you can run a criminal drugs empire for 25 years you'll make tens of millions every year and you have hundreds of henchmen doing your dirty stuff like assassinations, drive by shootings, kidnappings, etc... Ziggy is so careful in the entire movie, has all these goons to protect him and then takes the risk of showing himself. What the hell is Ziggy doing?Ziggy knows everything about Kevin and his dad, with all those millions he could just hire armies of goons to kill them bothZiggy knew from the start Kevin was FBI, after the coffee shop in the beginning of the movie he could already have killed Kevin, chopped him in pieces and sent him in parts to his father. That would hurt his father more than to shoot Kevin in front of his father.Ziggy has plastic surgery to make himself look and talk like a black man? No offense to black people but do you really think a white drug empire kingpin worth a few hundreds millions dollars doing this?Shouldn't Ziggy just enjoy the good upper class life in his big villa with his beautiful wive, mistresses and children and have this tiny ant Kevin and his dad crushed by his goons?Why waste your valuable time with such a ridiculous plan to destroy your enemy? I could go on for hours about all the flaws in the ending, but this should be enough explanation.Good movie, worthless ending.

The FBI Agent Kevin Cole (Cole Hauser) works undercover under the identity of Jimmy Vaughn for the powerful drug lord Ziggy trying to find his new identity after many plastic surgeries. Jimmy is assigned to torture the accountant and family man Archie Green (Laurence Fishburne), accused of embezzling ten million dollars from Ziggy, but systematically denied by Archie. The sick torture affects the behavior of Kevin and his relationship with Becky (Emmanuelle Chriqui), who leaves him after years of marriage. But the agent keeps going on his dark mission to prove that he deserves to be promoted in FBI by his own merits and not because of the influence of his father and FBI Director Jack Cole (James Cromwell)."Tortured" is an absurd and flawed thriller with a stupid story that explores torture, one of the favorite themes of Hollywood cinema in the present days. Cole Hauser and the cast have good performances, but the twist in the plot is unbelievably ridiculous and without sense and destroys what might have been a good thriller. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Torturado" ("Tortured")

There are films with better plots, and less obvious devices, but what made me continue to watch this film was Cole Hauser. I have seen him in other films as the cocky cop, or the cocky tough guy, but it was nice to see him in a more challenging role. I certainly don't think its award worthy, but I do think that it shows a different side of his abilities, and it may allow him to pursue more dramatic roles in the future. Lawrence Fishbourne and James Cromwell are good enough in their respective roles, but they are both incredible actors and it seems like this film offers them little challenge. Overall the film is worth a rent or a place on your Netflix list.