An average movie

I already saw this movie but, since it was a while back and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out again. I remember it pretty well, before it was released, there was a pretty good buzz about this flick. Indeed, after spending most of the 80’s and 90’s in some (usually really average) action movies, Sylvester Stallone was finally showing up in a drama and the supporting cast was also quite impressive (Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Peter Berg, Janeane Garofalo, Robert Patrick, Michael Rapaport, Annabella Sciorra, Noah Emmerich, Cathy Moriarty, , Edie Falco, Method Man). The concept was also really cool and it was just neat to see Stallone playing some stunted half-deaf loser instead of his usual super strong macho characters. So, there was definitely some potential but, unfortunately, I think the damned thing was rather poorly written after all (Mangold actually wrote this movie himself). Indeed, even though all the characters involved were intriguing, there were just too many storylines, especially for a movie lasting barely 100 mins. Another bigger issue was how they decided to handle the main character. Indeed, it was probably the most interesting character ever played by Stallone but turning him into a hero was such a huge mistake. To be honest, I’m not sure what they should have done with him, the material was so dense, there were so many characters involved, I think it would have better worked as a TV-series. Anyway, turning the main character into a super cop who solved the case was certainly not the way to go, that’s for sure. I mean, the guy had been working in this city for years so, by then, he already knew what was going on for a very long time, that’s the reason why he was so intriguing, but they made him do a 180 degrees personality change which was not only boring but, above all, not believable at all. The way they wrapped up the whole thing with some massive shoot-out during which he killed all the bad guys was also rather pathetic. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t fulfill my expectations, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you want to see Sylvester Stallone doing something completely different than his usual macho stuff.