Arsenal (feat. Nicolas Cage)

Arsenal is a story of two brothers who love each other. The older (Mikey) always protected the younger one, and in response to the darkness he faced, grew up to be the sketchy one. JP, the younger brother, grew up to be the good old boy, the blue collar hero.

Where does Cage fit into this? He's Eddie King, the bad guy, the main proprieter of organized crime in their city of Biloxi Mississippi. He wears a wig and a prosthetic nose. Why the customing? For no good reason. Despite the Mississippi setting, none of the characters in this film have southern accents.

But this is only a small flaw in this bad, terrible movie. The camera shakes all the time, like a frantic episode of Cops. All the driving scenes are in fast-motion. Dialogue is spoken as if being read straight from the script, rushing every scene. Cage gets a freak-out before we have a chance to figure out whether or not his character has a personality outside of his evil doings. John Cusak plays an undercover cop who might as well not be in the movie. He explains things that don't need to be explained, using up time that could be better spent on developing a mood of some kind.

And be warned, this film is violent in excess. More than once, I wondered how many times a man can take a baseball bat to the head before passing out. The actual story is pretty basic, despite the insane level of guns and gore. It's not like 8mm, focusing on the grotesque. I feel like the creators wanted to make a normal movie, only so they could normalize their fetish for this flavor of violence.

However, the badness of this movie didn't really inhibit my enjoyment of it. It's not bad-entertaining on the level of Tommy Wiseau's The Room, but it's still noteworthy. If you want to see a heart-warming drama about two brothers, plus 100 gallons of blood, check it out.

1. Raising Arizona
2. Leaving Las Vegas
3. Red Rock West
4. Adaptation
5. Pig
6. Birdy
7. Wild at Heart
8. Joe
9. National Treasure
10. Guarding Tess
11. Dog Eat Dog
12. Color Out of Space
13. Mom and Dad
14. Peggy Sue Got Married
15. Zandalee
16. City of Angels
17. Bangkok Dangerous
18. Drive Angry
19. Army of One
20. Lord of War
21. Gone in 60 Seconds
22. Matchstick Men
23. Vampire's Kiss
24. Con Air
25. Face/Off
26. The Boy in Blue
27. Honeymoon in Vegas
28. Amos and Andrew
29. Moonstruck
30. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
31. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
32. Bringing Out the Dead
33. The Family Man
34. Knowing
35. It Could Happen to You
36. 8mm
37. Looking Glass
38. Arsenal
39. Between Worlds
40. Left Behind
41. Ghost Rider
42. The Humanity Bureau
43. Next
44. The Weather Man
45. 211
46. The Croods