Joey Gazelle is a low level mobster whose job it is to dispose of "hot" guns from mob killings. But Joey has been hiding these guns in the drywall of his basement, instead of tossing them in the river. When Joey's son and his best friend, Oleg, witness Joey hiding some guns from a botched drug deal, Oleg steals one of the guns and shoots his abusive stepfather with it. Things are bad enough, but Oleg's stepfather happens to be the nephew of a psychotic Russian mob boss, who happens to be in business with Joey's crew on a gasoline scam. But now Joey's got a dirty cop from the botched drug deal on his case, not to mention the hot .38 out there on the street. As well as Oleg, who can connect Joey to the gun. And if Joey manages to make it through the night, he's still got to answer to his wife.
It's ugly and it's vile and it's disgusting and it's creepy and it just got tiresome.
– Richard Roeper,
Ebert & Roeper,
27 Feb 2006
rotten:
It says something when the most sympathetic character is a kid who shoots his dad with a stolen pistol.
– Scott Tobias,
AV Club,
28 Feb 2006
fresh:
The end result of all these cross-mob confrontations is an orgy of nihilistic violence that is curiously exhilarating, I am almost ashamed to say.
– Andrew Sarris,
New York Observer,
1 Mar 2006
rotten:
Presumably patterned after Robert Rodriguez's Sin City, but substantially more graphic, there is surely an audience for this empty brutality, but you would not want to know anyone to whom this picture appeals.
– Hap Erstein,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
11 Mar 2006
rotten:
With audiences jaded by the usual sex and splatter, do the filmmakers have no qualms about juicing up proceedings with edgy but troubling material which clearly needs more conscientious handling? Apparently not.