A Better Way to Die (2001)
Boomer is a rookie cop based in the urban hellhole that is downtown Chicago. After his involvement in a drug bust operation which results in the death of Carlos, his mentor and father figure, Boomer becomes disillusioned with the brutal and inhumane nature of his job. Consequently, he decides to hand in his resignation to the Chicago Police Department and return to his home town of Joliet, where his fiancé, Kelly, awaits. While en route back to Joliet, however, Boomer makes a grievous error in judgment when he stops for, and assists, an unfortunate motorist whose vehicle appears to have broken down; the naive ex-cop is swiftly attacked and rendered unconscious. Boomer awakes to find that his car and wallet have been stolen, and that he has become involved in a dangerous game of mistaken identity.
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good back-story, and good acting
Excellent adaptation.
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Boomer (Wiper) is a young Chicago cop that gets mixed up in a war between federal agents, such as Dexter (Phillips), and shady gangsters and criminals, such as Cleveland (Braugher) who want a special computer chip. Apparently this chip contains sensitive information that leads all the way to the top. So Boomer ends up on a road trip of sorts, dodging dangers at every turn, and meeting wacky characters such as Flash (Pantoliano, not Jeff Kutash). All he wants to do is propose to his beautiful girlfriend Kelly (which is probably a decent idea considering it is puzzling why a woman of this caliber is with this dork in the first place)...but, as they say, life has other plans...It seems, since the 2000's, the term "Direct to Video" is synonymous with this type of production - a not-quite-movie-theater-quality, run of the mill, post-Tarantino crime thriller that relies more on cursing in the dialogue than on good ideas. This is a shame, DTV used to encompass all sorts of things, not the least of which was punchfighting movies. But, alas, this relatively new form of entertainment has paved the way for such personalities as Scott Wiper, a man whose career would not exist were it not for the miracle of DTV productions.Despite the good cast, don't be fooled. This is some sort of vanity project for the aforementioned Mr. Wiper. Just because he wrote The Last Marshal (1999), now he feels he's entitled to write, direct and star in his own project, leaving the real stars in the background. Well, you're no Scott Glenn, sir. (Note snarky attitude). Lou Diamond Phillips and Wiper should have switched roles. But we're left with the unlikable Wiper, who appears to be some sort of irritating cross between Edward Burns and Ben Affleck.At the outset, it appears we're in for a low-budget, gritty crime drama that's at least striving for some measure of quality. Sadly, the "irony" sets in and we realize we're in sub-Boondock Saints (1999) territory once again. Of course, why that movie has a gigantic following and was even re-released back into the theaters (an unheard-of move) while A Better Way to Die and its ilk are unnoticed by these same "fanatics" is unknown.This movie is not impressive, although the (unfortunately) supporting cast tries their best. Henstridge has never looked better, but that's not nearly enough to save this dud. Regrettably, a Better Way to Die is a waste of the talents of LDP, Braugher, Pantoliano, Henstridge and Sweet Lou (B'Nard Lewis). Avoid.For more action insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com
When the movie started i thought that its gonna be just another one of those stupid ones where the most important thing is a car blowing up. That would be my guess but as the story developed after 15 minutes, the movie got better. A variety of good characters made it even better and a touch of humor even more. But this does not mean that things wont be blowing up. The story is also developing pretty good and it takes unexpected turns as the good guy turn bad and the bad ones turn good. The whole concept of a dude being in the wrong place at the wrong time is good and till the end you'll just be waiting for it to hit you with another new situation that you haven't seen before, nor later.
A Better Way to Die starts in Chicago where a cop named Boomer (writer & director Scott Wiper) witnesses the murder of his partner Carlos (Carmen Argenziano) during an undercover operation, he decides to leave both Chicago & the force & head out to the sticks to be with Kelly (Natasha Henstridge) the woman he loves. En route he finds himself dodging bullets & fighting for his life when he is mistaken for special agent Harrison James (Jefferson Moore) who the mob wants because of a computer chip with informant information on it & the Government wants him because of, well a computer chip with informant information on it. Seemingly everyone wants him dead as he tries to work out a solution to the situation he finds himself in...Staring, written & directed by Scott Wiper this wasn't anywhere near as bad as I was fearing, in fact I'd go as far as to say it's a fun little action flick without ever being spectacular. The somewhat predictable & often routine action thriller script doesn't take itself too seriously & is fairly light hearted in tone, the character's are decent & the dialogue is alright even though it resorts to constant use of profanity & bad language on occasion. It moves along at a brisk pace & is never boring although the action scenes are somewhat repetitive & are a little low key, don't expect car chases & explosions every five minutes because you will be disappointed if you do. My main problem with A Better Way to Die is that every time it starts to get good the pace slackens & it never quite reaches the dizzy heights of greatness, every time it starts to get good the scene just fizzles out into nothing. The fight in the burning barn at the end & the shoot-outs are average action sequences rather than great ones & as a consequence A Better Way to Die is a touch forgettable, it's a good solid film which you can sit down in front of if it's on TV for free & waste 100 odd minutes in it's company happily enough but by the next morning you'll probably have forgotten all about it & I certainly don't think it's worth spending a lot of money on buying the DVD.Director Wiper does a fine job here, it looks pretty nice & although the action scenes are distinctly average they are well shot & choreographed. It's just a shame about some of the poor editing during the shoot-outs, was this cut to get an 'R' rating? Is that why some of the shoot-outs look so choppy? Those outside the UK will have no idea what I'm talking about but while looking at the credits I noticed one of the producers was named Graham Taylor, I can assure everyone that it's a different Graham Taylor to the ex-manager of Watford, Aston Villa, Wolverhampton Wanderers & the Graham Taylor who had a disastrous time in charge of England when The Sun likened him to a Turnip when they superimposed his face on one of the vegetables all over their paper after we lost to Sweeden! Swedes 2, Turnips 1 was the headline... Still, at least us England fans can look back on it & laugh now, then again maybe not.Technically the film is fine, it looks nice enough with decent cinematography & production values. The action sequences could have used beefing up a bit, I mean one blown up car & a blown up shed isn't much to get that excited about. The acting is fine, although there are some fairly experienced names in the cast the likes of Lou Diamond Phillips, Natasha Henstridge & Joe Pantoliano they have very little screen time & are more cameo appearances than anything else.A Better Way to Die is a decent little action film, it's light hearted & has decent character's & an OK story but it didn't quite reach the heights of greatness for me I'm afraid. It's also rather predictable at times & nothing that we haven't seen before. If you can catch it on TV for free then go ahead but don't spend good money on it. Good but not great.
It's a little hard to review this film. Yes, it's not really very good, and I cannot recommend it. But there were some things done well, in spite of itself. Scott Wiper did an OK acting job, considering the limitations of the script. However, since he wrote the script, he is due for some criticism. While many of the action sequences were done OK, there are a few howlers in there. (For example, car doors will generally not stop large caliber bullets, and cars usually don't blow sky-high when shot unless they are full of explosives) The plot involved Wiper's character having the worst day (or two) ever, sort of like Sean Penn in "U-Turn" squared. Fairly early on, some of the things made me roll my eyes, and wonder if Wiper was quietly trying to turn the film into total camp. He wasn't, and that's a problem when the viewer wonders that. Some of the characters were total howlers. But one word of praise; Andre Braugher more or less stole the show. I was not familiar with him. IMDb says he was in "Glory" but I do not recall his part. If there is any reason whatsoever to watch this movie (and there's really not) Braugher is it.