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THE BUTCHER (dvdverdict.com review) The Charge Opening Statement
Thinking that if he has to shoot his way through a bunch of bad guys, he might as well as do it for a crapload of money, Merle takes the fight to his adversaries in a big way. With his waitress girlfriend by his side and a pair of gold-plated .45s with infinite ammo, The Butcher is determined to spill blood by the gallons. The Evidence The story is simple. There's a mob guy, he gets sold out, he kills everyone. There's no envelope-pushing storytelling at work here, but this isn't a plot-driven picture. The Butcher is a straight-arrow gun movie, which turns on the axis of its main character. Both of these ingredients -- the action and the antihero -- work well, more than compensating for the facile narrative. Start with Roberts, who is onscreen constantly. This isn't a film where we get a look at the inner workings and nuance of the bad guys' criminal syndicate; it's all Merle all the time, and his foes are purely walking, talking bullet magnets. Writer/director Jesse Johnson isn't interested in giving both sides of the story. He's content to hang his hat on Eric Roberts and keep the camera almost entirely focused on him throughout. It's a good choice, because Roberts is a ball-buster here. What he may lack in agility and youth, the guy makes up for with a snarling tough guy demeanor and awesomely well-managed hair. The dude is just cool in this movie, a big win because the whole enterprise would have floundered with a limp antihero. Part 2 is the action, and friends, it is glorious. While not acrobatic, high-flying, or particularly inventive, the gunplay is still a sight to behold. Johnson has gone all-out with what was surely a modest budget, producing some hard-nosed "realistic" mayhem. It's all gun-based, with no CGI to be seen. The blood flows like tributaries of the Mississippi and it's loud. Really, really, really loud. The big ending features Merle taking on the entirety of the syndicate in a bar shootout and the violence is through the roof -- exploding heads, gushing throat punctures, blown-off appendages, sucking chest wounds, brain matter flying in slow motion, it's all here. What doesn't work so well? The romance. I wasn't feeling the sentimentality between Merle and his lady love, though it pays off nicely in the final shot. Irina Bjorklund is beautiful and tries hard, but her character just wasn't that interesting, making that wannabe-emotional moment stumble. The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen looks fine, grainy only when the style dictates. Johnson uses pronounced color levels to stylize his action, and it looks good. The sound is an aggressive 5.1 mix that's a bit soft in the center channel, but ear-busting on the outsides. One extra of note: a behind-the-scenes featurette sprinkled with cast interviews. Closing Statement The Verdict Scales of Justice Perp Profile Audio Formats: Subtitles: Running Time: 113 Minutes Distinguishing Marks Accomplices For more information about The Butcher and World Films, including trailers of current and upcoming releases, visit www.worldfilms.com Contact:
Review content copyright © 2009 David Johnson; Site layout and review format copyright © 1998 - 2009 HipClick Designs LLC
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W O R L D F I L M S I N C. 3 4 6 0 1 C a m i n o C a p i s t r a n o C a p i s t r a n o B e a c h , C A 9 2 6 2 4
W e s t C o a s t : 9 4 9 - 4 6 0 - 6 9 0 0 E a s t C o a s t : 5 6 1 - 9 0 0 - 1 8 9 0 |
