Rockaway (2007)

As Good As It Gets

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

People do not understand cinema. I see the movie The Fighter with top stars and sure it gets Oscars or The Godfather oh ya great movie. This movie here the main actor is just a normal man. And, yes, he acts normal and looks normal. But the power that can come from a normal man explodes in this movie. The people who rated this movie low or complained about it are people with a low IQ. They probably don't like it cuz they like crime, like the Godfather. The godfather is trash. This little dude in this movie mostly uses intelligence to take down the mob and its godfather. I cannot stand the movie the godfather because America is praising crime and gangsters. This movie shows how one mans determination to stop a gang of thugs is expelled mostly with intelligence training determination and more. I cannot stand the Oscar and academy award panel- they do not know how to judge films. Where do the academy award panel judges get educated? Or are they rich people using money to make mistakes?

Rockaway straight to video was GREAT! Nicholas Gonzalez is Trane a battle proved war veteran from a tough tour in Afghanistan back home in Queens the neighborhood that took out his family becomes his center of rage. He becomes hell bent on taking out anyone involved in crime. Crook brothers turn it up with no slow boring parts. Oleg Taktarov sets things off as a "redfella" leading a Russian crime family. The action looked good as any movie. I could be talking crazy but Nicholas Gonzalez was way more better than hot shot actor from Harsh Times.What it came down to me was how real the Crooks brothers kept it. They showed what Queens hard living is. Rent it or buy it you cant lose people.

"Rockaway" is not always an easy movie to watch. The brutality keeps coming, as the movie tells the story of a returning vet from Afghanistan who faces as much personal chaos in the States as he encountered at war. Nicholas Gonzalez plays Trane, the homecoming vet, whose wife and child were murdered in Rockaway when they got in the way of the local mob. The brutality is necessary, because the story (said to be truth based) can not take it easy on either the facts or its themes to be effective. Trane comes home to neighborhood warfare and economic desolation in an often overlooked pocket of America. One of his adversaries is a Russian mob enforcer played masterfully by Oleg Taktarov, depicting another Afghan vet who served in the Soviet Army. Taktarov's character Ivan is menacing, but the actor also makes him sympathetic as Ivan, like Trane, was psychologically and morally exhausted by war in the Middle East. Taktarov gets better with every role, and when he's on the screen, "Rockaway" delivers its messages with breathless impact.

I saw this flick on a screening ready to be put on straight to video and i must say i was really surprised by this one , I'm no fan of straight to video movies,but sometimes one pops up as entertaining and this was surely on of those. with a budget of 2 million and at first a simple story i was really surprised by the events in this flick , the acting was so so but not as bad as i expected but the special effects compared to other straight to videos was surprisingly good and i actually grinned here and there.The baddies are stereotypes but that really fits for this one.So if your tired of the forever hero one man army righteous movies , try this one because this one has a bit of an edge to it.