MPAA Rated – R
It’s 1:28 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right
| Pawn Movie Stats & Links |
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| Starring: | Ray Liotta, Forest Whitaker, Sean Faris, Michael Chiklis, Common |
| MPAA Rated: | R |
| Released By: | Anchor Bay Entertainment |
| Released On: | April 23, 2013 |
| Kiddie Movie: | Send them to bed. |
| Date Movie: | It’s suspenseful and sometimes violent. She might snuggle. |
| Gratuitous Sex: | Not really. |
| Gratuitous Violence: | Some pretty good quality kills. |
| Action: | It’s pretty much all set in the diner. No major chase scenes here. |
| Laughs: | Nah. |
| Memorable Scene: | You could tell amiss was everywhere when Will went to the bathroom. |
| Memorable Quote: | Nothing stood out. |
| Directed By: | David Armstrong |
| Cool Things about the Blu-ray: | Nothing really – just a “behind the scenes” featurette. |
I really wanted to like “Pawn” a lot more than I did, I mean it had Forest Whitaker, Ray Liotta, Michael Chiklis, and even Common did a good job in his role, but sometimes a movie goes for too many twists and turns, and I think this is where “Pawn” kind of loses it a bit.
First, let’s get to the story…
We get a dude being interrogated in a hospital bed, and we get a scene with Will (Whitaker) entering a diner. Will is also a police office. It’s obvious something is amiss in the diner as Will seems like a regular, and Charlie (Stephen Lang) behind the bar sends off signals that there is a robbery in progress. As the movie would have it things are really amiss in this diner, people are not who they seem, and we are supposed to be led on an hour and a half suspense ride of “who really are the bad guys,” but instead we have Nick (Sean Faris), fresh out of jail, and being set up as the real bad guy, the pawn as it would be, and we are supposed to wonder if Common will be able to figure out that Nick isn’t bad, just in the wrong place at the wrong time, or is he really the bad guy?
I’m not going to go too much more into this movie so as not to spoil it should you rent or buy it, but I will say that I find it odd that the mob ends up looking like a complete bunch of boobs in this movie, and although sometimes they get portrayed that way, I’m thinking Ray Liotta’s character, simply credited as “Man in a Suit,” would never be a part of the mistake going on there.
The acting is good, I was surprised to find as many big names in the movie as there are, but I think the movie would have been better served with one less twist or turn, and just let the movie play out where the cops thought Nick was the bad guy, and go from there.
A decent enough thriller, some quality kills, but a story that tries too hard leaves “Pawn” as a 3 star out of 5 from me. A lot of potential lost in a lot of muck.
In terms of the extras on the Blu-ray, well, you aren’t getting this one for the extras because there is just a basic, behind-the-scenes kind of featurette where pretty much we get young actors saying how awesome it was, yet slightly intimidating, to work alongside some legends. Good enough.
That’s it for this one! I’m the Dude on the Right! L8R!!!