Striking Range

June. 01,2006      R
Rating:
3.9
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Trailer Synopsis Cast

When millionaire businessman Ted Billings (Glenn Morshower) double-crosses his partners in a weapons deal, he decides to hire some protection. Billings enlists Eugene "Vash" Vasher (Lou Diamond Phillips) a mercenary-for-hire and soon, Vash is fighting off assaults on his boss from all sides, but on top of that, he doesn't even like Billings who has a hidden agenda. Among the shoot-outs and chases, Vash forms a bond with Emily (Yancy Butler) Billings' chief-of-security and Vash's former flame who's not all that she appears to be.

Lou Diamond Phillips as  Eugene "Vash" Vasher
Yancy Butler as  Emily Johanson
Tom Wright as  John Hatem
Glenn Morshower as  Ted Billings
Jeff Speakman as  Kilmer
Troy Baker as  Brice Billings
Jackson Hurst as  Stan

Reviews

Cebalord
2006/06/01

Very best movie i ever watch

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Nessieldwi
2006/06/02

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

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Salubfoto
2006/06/03

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

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Brainsbell
2006/06/04

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

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winner55
2006/06/05

When his career began, Lou Diamond Phillips promised so much as an actor, that I have continued to see his films hoping that this promise would be fulfilled. But, while Phillips' acting is as good as ever, he has just made one bad film after another, so, until he or his agent learn what to look for in a script, I'm afraid "Striking Range" is the last time I'll be seeing Phillips for a while.This is an action film, and the actions scenes are OK. But the script really reeks. line by line the dialog is OK, but the story is a real mess. The idea of tossing a psycho-killer into the mix of a conflict between two mercenary groups might have seemed good on paper, but it's a bad strategy: psycho-killers have to be explained at some point in a film, because otherwise their motivations come off as silly. I know that sounds bizarre, but what I mean is that the explanation helps the audience suspend their disbelief in why anybody would want to kill people simply because they work at some office or attend some school or stopped at the wrong restaurant for dinner. This disbelief is essential to our sense of morality - it is why the violence of real psycho-killers, like the Columbine boys, is so horrifying and why we take such strong measures to counter it: we simply cannot believe anyone could be that vile.Since the writer of this film has left himself little time to develop the psycho-killer aspect of the plot, he has to resort to cheap tricks, stereotypes, and cliché to make the whole thing work somehow. The psycho-killer comes across as a parody.Meanwhile a plot twist seems to resolve the mercenary conflict - except that it doesn't, it's so wholly unprepared and obviously artificial. We want clues to this sort of thing, so we can look back on the film to say "I should have seen that coming," but we can't do this here, no one could have seen it coming, it doesn't make sense.And what is the thematic connection between the mercenary conflicts and the psycho-killer's? Even Sigmund Freud couldn't tell you; I don't think there is any.the writer here needs psychoanalysis for coming up with this hodgepodge, and Phillips needs it to try to figure out how he could throw away his mature career on such hooey.Four stars for the action scenes, the rest gets - blah!

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movie-hotline1994
2006/06/06

A cheap movie full of bad imitation of great movies and clichés. The writer/director desperately and clumsily tries to catch your attention using great ideas from other movies IE the first part trying to use the "Pulp Fiction formula" by Tarantino. Since this is a valid approach (the use of references from other movies) when done with quality and class, in this movie the director/writer comes with a a very unfortunate solution. Inconsistent plot: is a mixture of action movie, with a little of horror, a little of suspense a little of love and hate story, a little of friendship… . The characters are poorly defined, uses the ambiguous character formula in order to create a "obvious surprise" at the end. The acting is weak. A cheap movie, with awful story and direction. An insulto to the public.

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eldiez4ever
2006/06/07

Being an action film, Striking Range kept the mood going throughout with its brilliant sound effects and editing. The music and the start of the film was awesome. Music was great and the film had its action going throughout. The first seven minutes was the best in the film. It set the mood which is what its supposed to do. The action scene with Lou Diamond Phillips and Tom Wright with a matter-of-fact discussion while facing San Banarje (the hot mafia guy) was amazing. I wish we had seen more of Banarje who brought so much energy and color to the scene. Overall it was a great film and for action slick lovers this is a must see movie. Great work by Daniel Millican. And all you Lou Diamond Phillips fans out there, this is a comeback for him. He has his million dollar smile going and he is hotter than ever.

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jnor
2006/06/08

"Striking Range" has been a film I have been following for quite sometime- This usually works as a disadvantage because after so long I get let down with the end result. When the first seven minutes of the film was released on youtube I became very skeptical of the film. From the shaky camera work to the dialog I was like -"WTF"? It isn't surprising many people shared my opinion.However the movie came out and I went ahead and rented it. sat through those seven minutes again and Im very glad I did because what follows is a very good film. The acting improved vastly as did the action and suspense. It was all quite interesting.There are flaws of course- but knowing the budget and work that went into this ( via Internet and Indie Slate.) they are very easy to over look. My main issue was the purpose of one central character and while it does lend to one of the morals of the film ,it does kinda throw the viewer a bit off focus.There's a lot good though- The moral of the story for one- ideals , agendas and power- what that can do to someone even if its not your own. The acting was Super. Honestly I have never really paid attention to Lou other than a brief TV series he did a while back...which was so-so. But he is very good as Vash. Another stand out is Glen Moreshower from 24-very good and Of course Yancy Butler great as always.But seriously this film was low budget and you can't even really tell especially when you compare it with fims with a trillion dollar budget (you would be surprised.) that look very shoe string. this is high quality. and while it isn't the best thing ever it is waaaayyyy better than its current ranking.

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