Name: Film Review: Protection (2001)
Item: Protection
Rating: 40
Author: @drax

(source: tmdb.org)

“Wolf might change its clothing but not its character” is a proverb that could easily depict the protagonist of Protection, 2001 crime thriller directed by John Flynn. Salvatore a.k.a. Sal (played by Stephen Baldwin) is young mobster whose violent life began to catch up to him. He comes to the point when the only alternative to death or rotting in prison is betraying fellow mobsters to the authorities. As a reward, he enters federal witness protection program, gets new identity and new home for his family. His next door is neighbour is Ted (played by Peter Gallagher), idealistic law-abiding real estate agent who doesn’t have a clue about Sal’s shady past. Two men nevertheless become friends and Sal decides help Ted with his dream real estate development project for low income families. However, it soon turns out that Sal simply can’t shake off his old ways, especially when it turns out that Ted can’t find proper funding for his project and that shady local “businessman” Lars Lujak (played by Aron Tager) wants to muscle in. Sal employs his old criminal skills to help Ted, but his antics inevitably brings attentions of his former associates who would very much like to punish him for his betrayal.

Protection was the last feature film of John Flynn, director specialised for crime thrillers and action films, some of which, like The Outfit or Rolling Thunder had been praised by critics. This film was made with relatively low budget and released straight to video, but, despite that, it had potential for being something more than forgettable piece of exploitation cinema. Bleak Canadian locations are put to good use and the cast worked better than expected. Stephen Baldwin, the underrated Baldwin brother, is surprisingly effective as gangster torn between violent past and desire to start “normal” life, while Peter Gallagher is also good as a character who provides exactly the good and decent alternative to Sal, while at the same time being tempted to take some of the fast, exciting life of his new friend. Unfortunately, those good performances are drowned in the script that drowns in cliches and plot that serves as an excuse for often pointless violence and implausible twists. To make things even worse, Flynn directs many action scenes with subpar quality, suggesting that the lack of budget wasn’t the only problem for his last film. Although watchable on the account of good acting, Protection doesn’t deserve recommendation.

RATING: 4/10 (+)