This flick straight aggravated me - from about 10 minutes into the film I started questioning what I was seeing, how things didn't match up, how incoherent the story goes. Sequences don't match up and they never get summed up later in the film.
The acting was downright horrible, as if the people (note, didn't say actors) come in to work, read their lines, go home. There's no actual acting in the movie sans Bruce Willis! And if you come to see Brucie as a crazy Mob Boss, you're in for a disappointment because not only is he not a significant character, he's barely in the flick! Granted, the few times he does grace the screen its about the best lines - like when his boys are torturing a Russian Mob agent, he says 'This defeats the whole point of f--- interrogating somebody, how are you going to get anything out of him when he's dead? You brought me all the way down for this? Now you have to go get another Russian!" Classic!
Ryan Phillips presented another dull performance similar to others he's done recently, Curtis 50 Cent Jackson merely played another version of himself he does in all his movies. Have no idea why they always have him do unnecessary narration in every film he's involved with? He mumbles mainly, might as well had him rap the narration, would have been more fitting. He's trying to act, but obviously needs lessons.
Newer gangsta oriented flicks seem to be stuck in the doldrums, same ol' plot, same twist, same backstabber's. You knew who was snitching, you knew who was chasing from the moment you saw them. And no police, anywhere? All this blatant crime going on, chases and gunshots raining down on the streets of Detroit - and no police anywhere? Come on, like a vampire movie with no fangs.
And not to mention the story line moved along like peanut butter swimming in milk, lumpy and chunky. They skip certain things that would have gave the characters more dimension, hurried up dramatic scenes to push in some more action, and put in unnecessary stuff to draw away from the horrible script (Such as the butcher character - really?)
The friendship between Sonny and Vinnie wasn't even close to being believable, I would have never picked them out as buddies, as dull as both of their performances were. Funny, Sonny's relationship with Dave was stronger and Dave well... does not last long lol. Note to new filmmakers, if you want to do classic gangsta flicks study Godfather, The Untouchables, Goodfellas, Scarface, even Boyz in the Hood - and don't copy the formula - make something new, innovative, build the characters, give us something or somebody to root for! This piece, for all the hoopla, fails miserably!