Wrong Turn at Tahoe (2009)

I wanted to but couldn't!

Film Perfection

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

I've been ragging a lot on Cuba Gooding Jr. The past few reviews, so I'll go easy and speak about a good one instead. Wrong Turn At Tahoe has a script that should have been given the royal treatment; it's wise, brutal, thought provoking and very violent, with many sets of morals clashing against each other in true crime genre style. It didn't get a huge budget or a lot of marketing, but what it did get was a remarkably good cast of actors who really give the written word it's justice, telling a age old story dangerous people who inhabit the crime ridden frays of both society and cinema. Cuba plays Joshua, a low level mafia enforcer who works for Vincent (Miguel Ferrer), a ruthless mid level mobster who runs his operations with an OCD iron fist. He also rescued Joshua from a crack house when he was a young'in, forging a father son bond that runs deeper than terms of employment. When a weaselly informant tells them that local drug runner Frankie Tahoe (Noel Gugliemi, reliably scary) has it in for them, Vincent brashly retaliates first by viciously killing him. That's where the matter starts to get deep. Frankie was an employee of Nino (Harvey Keitel) that most powerful crime boss on the west coast and not a man to cross. Nino Wants hefty payment for the loss of Frankie, who was a good operative. Vincent, being the proud and belligerent son of a bitch that he is, bluntly refuses. So begins a bloody, near Shakespearean gang war in which both sides rack up heavy losses and the phrase 'crime doesn't pay' collects it's due. All parties were inevitably headed to a bitter end whether or not the Tahoe incident occurred, and I think the writer simply used that inciting incident as an example of many ways in which a life like that will always end up at a dead end. The writing is superb, especially for Gooding, Keitel and Ferrer, a vicious triangle indeed, all at the top of their game and then some. Johnny Messner is great as Gooding's cohort who can't keep his mouth shut, and watch for Mike Starr, Leonor Varela, Paul Sampson and Louis Mandylor too. Dark deeds, unexpected betrayal, self destructive ego, combustible machismo and ironic twists of fate are explored here in a script the remains as one of my favourite of that year. Really excellent stuff.

I watched plenty of movies this week and out of them, I think this is the best of the bunch.The setup was good and it followed through rather nicely.The story flowed well and there was not an over use of hard language or violence where there didn't need to be.Of all the gangster movies I watched, this is one of the better ones.What I really liked was that the film didn't take place in New York, Chicago, L.A. or Miami.It also takes place in winter and not everybody lives in the largest of homes or has the latest fashions or has poor vocabulary skills.The entire structure is nicely constructed and is a worthwhile viewing.The Scorpion and the Frog story made total sense and brought back some memories of someone who used to tell me that same story - and in this movie, it made total sense.Nice job to all.

I enjoy movies that breath class, take time to tell the story, and are a little off beat. I saw this movie by accident, and from the get go I was glued to the screen.Only after watching the movie I learned what a relief this must have been for Cuba Gooding Jr.! I hadn't seen movies with him in it for quite some time, so I was surprised to read all the fails he had produced. And there are a lot! This movie however, is a gem easily overlooked. The overall score of 6.1 is too low in my opinion. It is well written, directed and acted by all members of this great little enterprise.Cuba plays Joshua, the right hand man of a local gangster Vincent, played by Ferrer, who is excellent by the way! But Cuba is more intriguing, darker and with his dark sharp edged face (Cuba?! Yes, like I said, amazing performance!) he tells the story of a man who knows his place in the world, accepts the circumstances he works in and the resulting violence this automatically brings with it.He knows no mercy, is tough, street smart and loyal to his boss. During the movie you feel the fragility of Vincent when Joshua tells him he wants out. You feel and see the guard dog quality of Joshua that gives strength to his boss, who collapses when he finds out that Nino (big ass gangster played by Keitel, who is on automatic pilot IMO)had his wife killed after Vincent refused to play by his rules. Joshua turns 180 on his wish to leave and helps his boss to get even.It sounds like a simple gangster flick, but the way the story is told, slow paced but never boring, the shoot outs and killings that somehow feel more real than I have ever seen (although I have no personal experience how it really does look like, thank God) make the movie so believable, so intense and so overwhelming, that I sat on the edge of my seat the entire time.It is a gritty movie, real and in your face at a pace that gives you time to take it all in. Go rent this movie, it is well worth it!

I do enjoy a crime thriller and this, even though it went straight to DVD, isn't a bad one. Some great performances, plenty of violence and a pretty strong plot all add up to an entertaining watch (if you like that kind of thing). I'll tell you more of my thoughts after the following summary (summary haters please wait in the car with Joshua; he'll take you for a ride if you ask him nicely).Joshua is the number one guy to Vincent, a medium sized drug lord and crime boss on the East coast of the United States. He hears, through a third party, that a dealer by the name of Frankie Tahoe is out to kill Vincent. Of course Vincent won't stand for that and they go and take care of Frankie. Now, unfortunately Frankie works for the biggest boss on the East coast, Nino, and he's upset at losing one of his best dealers. They meet and, well, let's say they didn't part as best buddies. After Nino takes his revenge on Vincent the gloves come off and it gets very violent indeed. Of course there is a lot more to tell but I'm not going to spoil it for you.This is a very dark and a very violent film with some great performances. I thought Cuba Gooding Jr. was excellent as the brooding Joshua who has a dark secret he has been carrying since childhood; in fact it's the best performance I've seen from him in quite a while. Miguel Ferrer plays the part of the, sometimes psychotic, crime boss Vincent perfectly and Harvey Keitel is also excellent, as ever, as Nino.It's a pretty well made film which, although the budget was obviously pretty small still manages to excite and enthral. It has a very well written script but it is one of those that you have to watch, you can't have it on in the background and expect to follow it. So, if you like a good crime drama and you're not bothered too much by some rather graphic violence, then this one's definitely recommended… otherwise, I would give it a miss.My score: 6.5/10