Pawn

This movie reminded me a lot of "Catch .44" which also co-starred Forest Whitaker and took place largely at a diner and that I also got through Amazon to preview. This movie doesn't self-consciously try to ape Quentin Tarantino like that one, but overall it isn't much better. It's a muddled robbery/hostage story that on the whole isn't that great.

Like many of these movies nowadays the timeline is all jumbled up to try to make it seem more like a puzzle. Basically a guy named Nick gets out of jail and ends up at this diner owned by the Russian mob on the night that a crew of Brits led by Michael Chiklis (who incidentally is not British) rob the place. But things go wrong and soon it turns into a hostage situation.

The movie left me with several questions. Such as: the Russian mob is in Hartford? And why is a crew of British guys hanging around there? If you wanted British robbers why did you hire Michael Chiklis? Are British actors too busy playing American superheroes for a project like this? Why is the Russian gangster always wearing that ascot? Does he have a horrible scar or tattoo under there? Could they find a worse rapper-actor than Common to play the negotiator? What was the point of Ray Liotta's "Man in the Suit" character? What's with Forest Whitaker's left eye? Has he had a stroke recently?

I could go on, but I think I'll just go watch "The Negotiator" for the thousandth time instead.

That is all.