Name: Retro Film Review: Underworld (1996)
Item: Underworld
Rating: 15
Author: @drax

(source: tmdb.org)

Roger Christian is a film director who can be accused of many things, but lack of ambition is not among them. Battlefield Earth, his best known (and most infamous) film was an attempt to create science fiction masterpiece in the same league with Star Wars. Few years earlier he tried to emulate success of another genre classic in Underworld, film more than obviously inspired by Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.

The plot deals with series of brutal gangland murders. Night club owner Frank Gavillan (played by Joe Mantegna) is going to be involved in that when he meets his old friend Johnny Crown (played by Dennis Leary). Johnny is a gangster who spent seven years in prison. Now he is determined to avenge the murder of his father, even if it means massacre. What sets his violent crusade from many others is the education he received behind bars - he left prison with a psychology degree and therapist licence. So, for him violent revenge is nothing more than one long psychotherapy session.

The man who needs therapy is screenwriter Larry Bishop, at least in case he thinks that someone could take seriously his plot about gangsters who debate Broadway musicals, Freudian theories and organ donating. Something similar could have been useful to director Christian, obviously unaware that his endless slow-motion shots of gunfights are going to bore even the most patient members of the audience. Dennis Leary could also benefit from few kind words about his endless talk, here not being funny enough to salvage irredeemably bad films like Underworld.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on October 30th 2003)