Comeuppance Reviews
FBI Agents Hanson, Hamilton, Burke, and Rodriguez (Locklear, Williamson, Gage, and LaSardo, respectively) are a tight-knit force that tend to hole up in an abandoned warehouse (where else?) as they fight the baddies. Hanson is a fearless undercover agent who likes jigsaw puzzles. A new wrinkle comes into all their lives in the form of Cypher (Rea), a hit-man who has not one, but two signatures to his killings: he shoots them twice in the head (i.e., he "double taps" them), and he leaves a white rabbit's foot by the body. He's also heavily into lawn care. As the lives of Hanson and Cypher draw inexorably together, other complications arise in the forms of Nash (Greene), Ulysses (Howard), Escobar (Martinez) and Fischer (Edson). Will the team of agents bring down Cypher - and should they? Or will a bunch of people end up dead and stuff? Find out...? There were a lot of movies like this in the later 90's. It seems like practically every other movie on a video store shelf from approximately 1997-2000 was a about hit men, gangsters, or both. In the post-Tarantino landscape, DTV producers figured they could make movies like his on the cheap - and why not, all he was doing was recycling earlier ideas as well. Enter Underworld (1996), Suicide Kings (1997), A Better Way to Die (2000), Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane (1998), Truth or Consequences, N.M. (1997), Double Deception (2001), Killing Time (1998), Sworn Enemies (1996), and on and on, ad nauseam. You know the type of movie we're thinking of - leave a comment if you can think of some more. Well, Double Tap is one of those. Despite the presence of a practically ALL B-movie star cast, this boat is taking on water and sinking quickly. Lone Tiger syndrome strikes yet again.And because it was the late 90's, clearly the movie had to be "edgy". It was a time of Mountain Dew commercials with radically awesome snowboarders jumping out of helicopters as they slammed their 'Dew. (For those who don't know, you slam a Dew, you do not drink a Mountain Dew). In this context, we now have Heather Locklear at a scuzzy porn theater, sitting in front of the screen and smoking crack. Hooray. Load it all up with a bunch of unnecessary and pretentious "stylistic choices" like crazy cuts, freeze frames, breaking up the movie into chapters with titles, etc. Though it was nice to see Locklear in an atypical role like this, she's a classic case of cognitive dissonance - while she certainly does not look like Hillary Clinton, her voice is a dead ringer for Clinton's. It's odd to hear that voice come out of the beautiful Locklear. You think at any moment she's going to flatly, loudly intone something about Bill or "what difference does it make?" But Locklear is just one of many in this ensemble cast, and we believe the show was stolen by someone else. ..It was also nice to see LaSardo in a good-guy role, which is rare for him. He gets more screen time than usual, and he makes the most of it. This is truly top-notch LaSardo. One of the main draws of the movie is Stephen Rea, also in an unusual role. (does this movie only exist so the filmmakers can brag about some low-grade stunt casting?) Peter Greene plays essentially the same role as he did in the aforementioned Sworn Enemies, and Terrance Howard is a drug dealer or something. While there is no Locklear-Fu or Rea-Fu, there is plenty of shooting and a few blow-ups. The cast does what they can, but its vibe is off-kilter to the point of off-putting, and it has a junky feel to it, and on top of all that, it loses steam a lot. We would say it loses focus, but we're not sure there was ever any focus to lose. But further reinforcing the 90's vibe is the fact that the score is by Moby. Apparently Goldie or Tricky weren't available. They must have been making B.U.S.T.E.D. (1999) and City of Industry (1997), respectively.We were expecting more - a lot more - from director Yaitanes, who had previously directed Comeuppance favorite Hard Justice (1995). We thought teaming him with Stephen Rea and an all B-Movie star cast would equal gold. Not so much. We didn't think he'd have to trowel over the cracks in the script with a bunch of wacky editing and cinematic trickery. As we always say, don't try to be "cool", try to be good. Double Tap has, to date, never received a U.S. DVD release. We think we know why.
PracticalMagic
One thing saved this film.. Stephen Rea's acting job. I have never seen a personallity archetype in a hollywood film, that comes close; which really made his character interesting to watch. Heather Locklear is hot... That is the only thing she has going for her. Personally she should stick to the Money Talks type roles, as she did not carry this film well. Peter Greene once again played Peter Greene, as he has done for every movie since The Mask. So, I cannot say much about him. It was fun to watch I suppose... But reiterating, the Stephen Rea performance really saved it.
Would I watch this film again? Yes.
xorys
This is an unbelievably stupid movie. How does an idiotic farrago of a script like this ever get made into a film? Nothing any of the characters says or does is for a moment credible... and yet the piece is apparently aiming to be a "gritty, realistic crime drama". The director sort of has a stab at some meaningful creative input, and I'd guess would probably be quite likely to produce something watchable with a real script... but nothing could save this nonsense. More believable characterisations and narrative would have been produced if the actors had been restricted to mouthing "Gaga. Googoo." for the entire length of the film. I'm really sick of being expected to accept this sort of rubbish as if it were a credible effort at film-making. Not recommended to anyone... if you have low enough standards to watch this, then you should be quite happy watching any flickering image without bothering to pay admission or rental. Well ok, the score is interesting, and Heather Locklear shows signs of a performance better than might have been expected from her record... but really *nothing* could defeat such an abysmal script.
helpless_dancer
Very strange film. A former cop kills criminals with 2 shots to the head, then leaves a rabbits foot near the body. A team of FBI agents are assigned to track him down, and one of the agents becomes emotionally involved with the killer. Unusual use of cameras adds a lot to the appeal of the movie; however, the film still came off as a high end 'B' movie. Too many glaring holes took away from the story, leaving it unrealistic. Corny one liners and overdone dialogue also acted as a detraction. Still it was an interesting show; different from a lot of films in this genre.
