Once Upon a Time in Venice (2017)

People are voting emotionally.

One of my all time favorites.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Once Upon A Time In Venice is one of the worst, most annoying films of the year and in recent memory. With the exception of a quite funny Jason Momoa, no one involved in this debacle walks away with their dignity intact. So many bad lines, so many missed opportunities, so many embarrassing acting moments, and so few reasons to sit through 90 minutes of a lackluster Bruce Willis wondering around Venice Beach aimlessly for his dog. Sadly Willis and especially John Goodman seem more lost than the pet they are trying to find. As I mentioned before, the only actor who brings anything to the table is Momoa, which is surprising, especially given what little he had to work with. He scores all the laughs in the film, that's right, both of them, mainly because of his deadpan execution of an otherwise run of the mill antagonist. This movie has no reason to exist and no story to tell and speaking of stories, once upon a time there was an actor who tried, then the 90s ended, he went bald, and just stopped caring. That's the end of the story and Bruce Willis's career.

"Never f*ck with a man's dog." Either Venice Beach in L.A. is a tiny place at the ocean. Or Bruce Willis knows how to move around with incredibly speed. Because the pace at which he pops up in different places is impressive. Fortunately, it's not full naked on a skateboard the whole time, because that wasn't a pretty sight. Just like Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Aftermath", you can see that aging is getting to Bruce Willis. The result is a set of not so tight buttocks. But they are still muscular enough to clamp a revolver in between."Once upon a time in Venice" is a fairly chaotic story where Steve Ford (Bruce Willis), a private detective who solves ludicrous cases most of the time, gets into a lot of trouble when his dog is being stolen by a local gang. Well, John Wick also shot a bunch of gangsters, after they've killed his cute little dog. Proof that you should be careful with dog owners. Before Steve realizes it, he needs to fulfill a few assignments to get his dog back. And trust me, a few of those clients look and act absolutely weird.Despite the satirical mood and some highly amusing characters, the whole story isn't so impressive. Perhaps it was their intention to make an action comedy, but unfortunately the humorous section was quite disappointing and the action part was limited to a number of skirmishes in the end. To be honest, for once, it's the enthusiasm of Bruce Willis's acting that surprised me. In this movie he doesn't have that uninterested, tired look and nonchalant attitude as he demonstrated before in a few meaningless films. No, once again you could see him appear with his sympathetic, cheerful look while quoting a few one-liners (though they weren't really witty). This time it felt as if the paycheck wasn't the main reason for him to participate in this film. The movie poster reminded me immediately of "The Last Boy Scout". Come to think of it. Wasn't he planning to buy a dog for his wife in that movie as well? In all probability a coincidence, I guess.Personally I thought John Goodman (Did he loose weight?) stole the show as Steve's sidekick. His character looks as if he came straight out of "The Big Lebowski". A peculiar person and owner of a surf shop whose life is riding a fatalistic roller-coaster because of a messy divorce. But the moment he takes part in the action, as Steve's partner, he's as happy as a pig in shoes. The surprised look on his face when he sees Steve's weapon arsenal, is comparable to his overall performance. It's as if John Goodman didn't really know why he was in this movie in the first place. Which made it even more funny. Also Jason Momoa (last seen in "Bad Batch" playing an interesting role) did a great job. On the one hand, a lame persiflage-like part. But because it was greatly exaggerated, it became funny as well. And in between, you'll see a Jewish real estate owner called "Lew the Jew" (Adam Goldberg), who's troubled by a fanatic graffiti artist who paints explicit pornographic artwork on his buildings.I often felt embarrassed about certain scenes while watching this movie. On the one hand, it was fun to see Bruce Willis acting with visible pleasure and without scruples. On the other hand, there were also some awkward performances to admire and the humorous level wasn't comparable to what Willis had done in the past. Perhaps it was a movie unworthy of such an actor as Bruce Willis, but compared to the other monstrosities he appeared in in the recent past, this comedy/action movie was still a little bit of an improvement.More reviews here : http://bit.ly/2qtGQoc

"Once Upon a Time in Venice" (a.k.a. "L.A. Rush") is a funny film, not funny / hilarious, but more a funny / entertaining & harmless flick that reminds a lot the Shane Black's penned works such as Willis' own "The Last Boy Scout" or "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" and the early 90's offbeat action comedies such as "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane". It's not as clever as the flicks above mentioned & the humor is a bit juvenile oriented, but it isn't as bad as the other reviewers mentioned here and, in fact, it's one of the first Bruce Willis' movies in a long time, that he's awake during it and acting with conviction like if he's interested in the material, not in the sleepwalking mode / 'gimme 5 million for a 10 minutes cameo with me bored to death performing in it' of his latest roles. Bruce is here in top form for his age, making a parody of his most iconic characters like John McClane & Joe Hallenbeck and even a certain humorous scene reminiscent of his Butch Coolidge in "Pulp Fiction". The supporting cast is full of well-known faces: Famke Janssen; John Goodman in his usual "best & faithful friend, but a loser" role; Adam Goldberg; Christopher MacDonald; David Arquette & Jason Momoa, who surprisingly delivers a good performance spoofing a manly, but sensitive leader of a Mexican street gang. Verdict: it's a nicely paced little comic flick which went straight-to-DVD in most of the countries, but deserves to be seen at least once. For fans of an unpretentious action / comedy, not for the 'thinking man', just for an amusing and lazy Sunday afternoon at the movies.

Like many, I've been a Bruce Willis fan since "Die Hard." And I agree that some of his recent movies have not been as satisfying as I'd like. So that may have led me to some lower expectations with "Once Upon a Time in Venice." But, it's Bruce Willis (and John Goodman, and Jason Momoa, and Thomas Middleditch, and the list goes on), so what the heck.I found myself actually laughing at the dialog and acting (in a good way). The irreverent Bruce Willis attitude was here in full, and EVERYONE else was that way, too, which is one of the things that made this movie really fun. Yes, the action sequences were kind of light, but they fit it perfectly with the tone of the movie.If you want a fun Bruce Willis movie, this one is it. Loved it!