Artisan Entertainment

Synopsis

Professional hit man Christopher Lambert is given a new contract, but this one doesn’tinvolve killing. He is to travel from Europe to Cape Town (where his parents were killed whenhe was but a wee lad) and protect Dennis Hopper, a businessman with mob ties who is going totestify against psychopathic gangster Christo. Even in jail, Christo’s reach is long and deadly, andLambert has his work cut out for him protecting the very unpleasant Hopper and his daughter.So far, so conventional... if you can call the sight of Hopper in a bad black toupee and goateeconventional. Then, halfway through the film, the main characters hightail it out of Cape Towninto the countryside, and the movie turns into a stately meditation on guilt, redemption andforgiveness. I’m not entirely convinced the project works: the imbalance of heavy action in thefirst half and hardly anything happening for the second is most peculiar, and the storytelling israther disjointed all the way through. The various subplots all get tied together rather too neatlyas well. Still, the very peculiarity of the film works in its favour, and made for a much moreinteresting viewing experience than I was expecting. The final shot is unlike any you’ll see in justabout any other recent action movie.

Synopsis

The Legend of the gunfighter who wears the red scorpion jacket has come to South Beach in Miami. When the parking valet at a local strip club gets pulled into the legend he hinds himself the target of a mob hit and running for his life. Throw a sociopathic blonde into the mix and he might as well finish himself off before someone does it for him.