Overall Rating: **
Domino @ IMDB
Synopsis:
Spoiled little rich girl, Domino Harvey (Kiera Knightley) grows tired of her Beverly Hills lifestyle and becomes a bounty hunter. Under the tutelage of Ed Mosbey (Mickey Rourke) and with the help of Choco (Edgar Ramirez), Domino quickly becomes skilled at hunting down the bad guys. When her crew gets called in to bag a quartet of armored truck robbers, things go horribly wrong. A con gone wrong quickly involves the mob, the FBI, a tv producer, Afghanistan, and a sick little girl.
My name is Domino Harvey, I am a bounty hunter……
Review:
I was expecting a pretty bad movie, and from the overall rating I gave it, you probably think I hated this movie. Interestingly enough, that wasn’t the case. This was a bad movie, and it does deserve only 2 out of 5 stars. However, I never said that it didn’t have some redeeming qualities. There are several good points to this movie that made it a 2 star movie as opposed to a 0 star movie. As someone I know likes to say, zero is greater than negative one. So I guess I’m saying its bad, but not as bad as it could be.
So as I understand it, this movie is a fictional interpretation of the biography of real-life bounty hunter Domino Harvey. The story itself was interesting. I liked the plot as a concept. A con job gone wrong, mad mafia, crazy tv producer (Christopher Walker), and one bad chick. I guess this film follows the trend of female heroes that take no prisoners like Lara Croft, Alice (from the Resident Evil series), and Aeon. The only difference betweeen Domino and the other examples I gave is that she really exists. So far so good. The problem was all of the extra stuff. Stuff that really didn’t added much to the plot and was kinda annoying. For example, the DMV clerk’s (Monique) appearance on The Jerry Springer Show to explain mixed-race minorities (I can’t really explain this). Or how about the unexplained, injured, desert-wandering, Cadillac-driving, possibly-drunk preacher who somehow knows the entire plot (and has a moral opinion on the best course of action). Confused? Yeah, so was I.
Tony Scott, the director, really tried with this one to make it a good movie. The good elements are there. They are just so weak that they’re quickly overshadowed by the bad elements. The acting wasn’t bad. I have a growing appreciation for Keira Knightley, if only because in some ways I bought into her character. For some reason, despite her extreme nature, she seemed plausible to me. Was this her best work? Probably not, but some scenes came out quite well. The rest of the cast was (in my opinion) largely irrelevant. I did enjoy Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green, who played themselves. I was surprised at how much of the movie they were in. They didn’t do much, but they were mildly amusing.
What else did I like? Well, I really liked the cinematography. The style of the movie was perfect. It is a lot like Man on Fire, which was produced by Tony Scott. The technique was great to give the movie a gritty reality. Unfortunately, it wasn’t nearly enough to bring the movie up to snuff. I couldn’t stand the tag line (possible one of the worst trailers I’ve ever seen.) Overall, not worth watching. I wouldn’t waste the money on the rental. If you’re really bent on seeing it, wait a few years and it will show up on FX or Spike TV. If you do opt to watch it, a word of warning: this movie is violent, graphic (a little gore, some nudity) , and a lot of foul language. Definitely not for kids. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.