Windfall (2002)

Pretty Good

Don't Believe the Hype

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

So i bought the DVD for two euros because of Eglund. The movie wouldn't be too bad it if wouldn't got so many irrational and unlogical things in it.SPOILER For example in the beginning, main charter kills a guard and steals the whole casino, after he got caught they offered him a job in the same casino? Okhay... SPOILERThe acting is mostly good, cinematography not only monotone and soundtrack contains pretty much only one song. Still I thought the movie was kind of entertaining. Not a good movie, but watch this if you can for free and have a few laughs (Campy and standard)1-2/10 as a movie. 3-4/10 a form of entertainment

I voted for 3 stars. It would have been a lot less had the movie not been so predictable. But now you could easily predict the outcome and laugh a bit whenever you were right. This movie has really failed in making the story coherent. We get a lot of information that doesn't lead anywhere and is never fully explained. It has also failed in directing the actors to show any sign of emotions. Sure, they try to be emotional by raising their voices, but that is not enough. They also have some harsh words to say when they dislike things, but a good dialogue doesn't help here. However, to mention two good things at least, I have to say that, first, you get unchanging, uncomplicated characters. Of course this means you have to put up with them being stereotypes. And second, that the beginning showed some promise. Unfortunately this wasn't fulfilled.

I suppose this is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel, but here goes --- Think 70's TV show on a bad day. Dialog is idiotic and painful, plot... well never-mind, acting is bad and the award for high school acting class level goes to the assistant meteorologist. (Ray Wise is completely wasted here).(Spoiler of sorts follows) I will cite only one example of how badly this done. There is an A-Team like sequence, where two bad guys on motorcycles are chasing the "good" guys down a crowded pier, shooting at everything and everybody except the object of their chase. But nobody gets hit. Next they chase them in boats, but seem incapable of shooting above the gunwales of the boat. This is followed by rocket grenades etc. Now after all this, do you suppose any of the folks at the pier would have thought to call the police? No, apparently this just part of the normal entertainment.... My rating for this is Four Dogs.

As far as these "straight to video" action movies go, I've seen far worse. The production values were OK, and there were a few good chase scenes. Several things let this movie down though, most important being a plot that was silly at times, including such ridiculous events as people crowding onto a boat to sail off an island minutes before a hurricane is due to arrive, and bad guys who are comically inept at aiming guns at the good guys. The acting is pretty bad, with Robert Englund and Gregg Henry both hamming it up. Casper Van Dien's acting is the same as always- wooden and goofy but somehow almost vaguely likeable. Ray Wise is wasted in a supporting role with terrible lines. Libby Hudson is forgettable in a forgettable part. The bad guy's henchmen are all straight from central casting's low-budget division.But... some parts of the story were not too bad, and some of the chase scenes were quite good. As I said, I've seen far worse. Five out of Ten.