When he suffers heart attack on the job, resulting in a criminal escaping, Pally LaMarr retires from the police force. Turning to drink and contemplating suicide he is offered distraction by his step brother Ray LaMarr who tries to bring him in on a deal to buy a race horse. The horse is slow but Ray realises that minor surgery will free him up. They go through with the deal and bring Tony LaRoche on board as the jockey. However LaRoche owes money to the mob, so the mob take the horse. Stealing the horse back, Ray makes a deal to pay off the debt within a month or to give up the horse.
I watched this film because I do like Kiefer Sutherland and have grown keener on him now that I am watching him weekly on 24. I had reasonable hopes for this because it did start quite well and was quite stylish in the opening 10 minutes. However after this point the darkness opens up and it appears to be an uneasy mix of comedy and drama, neither of which really work. The plot is very plodding and very little actually happens in the film certainly there is no real tension for the most part.
Events happen which are almost without consequence (for example one of the mob goes missing but nothing is really mentioned of it again in the film) and things just seem to meander until an ending that is far too neat for it's own good. In fact the final scene of the film is silly and abrupt like the film didn't so much end as, well, stop. It is mildly interesting but this has nothing to do with the plot.
What made it watchable was the chemistry between Sutherland and LaPaglia, although neither gave a particularly good performance. They came across well together and made for an pairing that I'd like to see again in a much better film. Sutherland is a little hampered as he doesn't know how to play his character at times he is comic, others he is dark, others he is free and light. There is no consistence and it seems to be whatever the tone of the scene requires certainly his stress in one scene quickly vanishes for a more comic scene following. LaPaglia is a poor character here, his `furgett-abot it' acting is clichéd and tired and wastes his talents. Bluteau is really, really poor his accent is way off somewhere and his character is as thin as paper. The support cast are OK but have little to do but even with a dream support cast I doubt this film could have been lifted above the material.
The direction etc is pretty standard. After some style early on the film falls away and uses too much rock music etc and lots of `clever' shots that are just pointless more time should have been spend on the story and delivering characters and drama. Overall I had reasonable hopes but these were dashed early on. It delivers so very little that it is almost a non-film. Ask me about it in and year and I'm sure I'll have no memory of it.
