First Look Studios

Have you ever had the feeling that you’ve joined a film somewhere in the middle? That’s how I almost immediately felt about Stiletto. I even went back to the menu to be sure I wasn’t starting the film in progress. No such luck. The script drops you in the middle of these characters’ adventure so that by the time you understand what’s going on, you’ve long given up caring. That means the only other thing you might have gotten this film for is to see some full on kick butt chick action. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t really deliver on that either.

Raina (Katic) was a mobster’s girl. Now she’s out for revenge on the entire organization for a particularly brutal act. One by one she’s taking the crew down, but she fails to kill Virgil (Berenger), the leader of the gang. He survives and decides to send his crooked cop, Beck (Sloan) to stop her before she tries to kill him again. It’s a basic cat and mouse game as she continues to “Raina” down on his gang. Alex (Forsythe) has taken the lady into her confidence, but is just using her himself. No doubt that Stana Katic looks pretty good as she methodically kills her enemies, but there’s really no flair to the performance. She was much better in the latest Bond film. I never saw the hatred and emotion that caused these acts in the first place. She’s pretty matter of fact as she goes about the slayings. The events themselves look staged and never deliver on the promised thrills. William Forsythe looks like the scumbag his character is, but I get the feeling that’s just Forsythe. He’s become quite a clichéd character actor, and we’ve seen him like this a hundred times before. Tom Berenger’s face looks like they puffed it out with prosthetics. At least, I hope it’s makeup. Otherwise, dude’s gotten ugly. He either can’t or refuses to emote more than one emotion the entire picture. Don’t even get me started on the gang that calls itself “Nazis For Jesus”. No one in this cast sets the film on fire. What you end up with are countless action sequences that never seem to get your heart racing. Before long I found myself too catatonic to even turn the thing off.

In the review business, we often get films that we find to be distasteful or just plain rubbish. This is especially true when we receive a popular star’s directorial debut. Usually it is an egotistical pompous piece with no merit outside to try to drive the idea home that the actor is a well-rounded individual. However, once in a while we get a film that was directed by an established star that actually gave birth to his career. This is a self-promotional piece that got the world to know the person’s name. The name of this person I speak of? That would be Vin Diesel. The movie is called Strays.

Rick (played by Vin Diesel) is trying to change. He is a drug dealer by day and by night he is finding his next female conquest. However, he knows that there is more out there in the world and would like to have a healthy and real relationship with a woman. He has three friends: Fred (played by Joey Dedio), Mike (played by Mike Epps), and Tony (played by F. Valentino Morales). They call themselves: ‘Strays’. They are strays because they didn’t have a father growing up and were lacking in a traditional family structure.