Sin (2003)
Retired cop Eddie Burns gave 15 years and the use of his left arm to the Reno homicide squad. When his wayward sister, Kassie, goes missing Eddie Burns finds himself subjected to a fiendish and ingenious campaign of revenge by the mysterious Charlie Strom. In order to protect his sister, Eddie - disabled, betrayed and alone - journeys into the heart of his own darkness: where he discovers that the reason for his ordeal lies in his own past sins and those of his adversary Charlie Strom.
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Reviews
Disturbing yet enthralling
Boring
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
Have you ever seen authentic Hollywood drivel? Well, this is it! The story is infantile, characters performed by the actors all have an IQ of zero, and the producers must've been drunk when they made this. I would've understood this kind of garbage being made a decade ago, but in 2003!? And by Gary Oldman?Despite the comments that you can read on amazon.com (probably done by patriotic American boobs), this is one is a complete waste of time. It's unimaginable that this kind of stories still hold a grip over the public. Half the movie is a bunch of cliché sentences and the other half is a meager attempt to portrait cops as heroes. I mean, how many times have they done it before?_Anything_ is better than this. An insult to any man's intelligence.
Sin takes an average revenge story, adds in rape and pornographers, and ultimately turns into an average revenge story. At the very least, the plot thickens near the end of the movie when we realize that the bad guy (who is a really bad guy and the movie absolutely will leave no questions about that) turns out to have a reason for his actions throughout the movie beyond just being a really bad guy. It is odd, however, that a movie can take such talented actors as Ving Rhames and, especially, Gary Oldman and turn their performances into run-of-the-mill action clichés. Rhames utters the phrase 'she's my sister' so many times in the movie that by the end the movie has turned the phrase into a cliché all by itself. You messin' with my family you messin' with me, and so forth. I think that most of the reason that so many people hated this movie was because it raises your expectations because of the people involved but did nothing new within its genre. It's a standard revenge movie with standard plot points and turns and even the standard plot thickening in the third act.Where the movie does not wallow in clichés, however, is in some of the characterizations. No one is as good or bad as they initially seem to be in this movie. The evil was heaped onto Charlie Strom, Gary Oldman's character, so heavily in the first half of the movie that it's difficult for him to escape from underneath the mountain of badness that he is under even when we see the reasons for his actions, but the good guys in particular, are not as good as they seem. Eddie Burns (Ving Rhames) lost the use of his left arm in the line of duty, but also played a role in the death of an innocent man that could really amount to murder. Bella, played by Alicia Coppola, is someone that we want to root for but may hesitate because of the, ah, sinful nature of her occupation. There is, however, a lot of forgiveness in the movie, and I respect that. At one point, Eddie discusses some of the finer points in life with Strom over cups of coffee, despite their mutual desires to kill one another. Later in the movie, Eddie is attempting to save Strom from a pool of quicksand in the middle of the Nevada desert. I didn't know there was quicksand in the middle of the Nevada desert, but no matter. The movie's not about where there is quicksand or how fast you can get from large freeways in the middle of Las Vegas to open desert without even any discernible roads, the movie's about you messin' with my family you messin' with me. And who better than Ving Rhames to return the messy favor?Rhames could take these people out with an arm tied behind his back.
I saw this movie only because Gary Oldman was in it. And once again he was great. Too bad he wasn't in the movie as much as he needed to be. The story is an Ex-Cop is looking for his sister who has entered a life of Sin, hence the title of the movie. The title is the basic theme, every character has done something bad that they either regret or embrace. While the cast wasn't bad, it was most likely just the story and the editing. I have to say this movie had some of the worst editing I have ever seen in a movie. It's almost like they spent all their money on the cast, the film, and the sets. And they couldn't afford much for music and editing. Gary Oldman is still great, but because this movie was so boring, I have to say this is his worst movie. Yes, even worse than Nobody's Baby. If you're a Gary Oldman fan, then you may have to see it. But other than that, it's not even worth renting.
Now keep in mind, the only reason I undertook to see this film was because Gary Oldman was on the cover. If it had been anyone else (Richard Grieco, Michael Pare, Brian "The Boz" Bosworth, for example), I would not have even picked up the box. SIN looked liked a B-grade thriller, but Gary Oldman...The truth is is that SIN has a decent ambition, but very little ability to back it up. The film contains both an anti-hero and an anti-villain, creating an interesting ambiguity, but it simply throws it away.A retired cop (Ving Rhames), and his kid sister, are threatened by a shadowy vindictive drug/porn/gun dealer played by Gary Oldman. There is a graphic rape scene I wouldn't go into, and other lurid happenings that lead these two characters into a final showdown, which could have been interesting, but is instead a car chase. Rhames' former chief (Brian Cox) shows up randomly to offer sage advice, all to the backdrop of Michael Giacchino's derivative score (although it is good to see him breakout from the video game scene). So is this film worth seeing? Ving Rhames tries his best, but is better suited for films like PULP FICTION, he does not emote as a crippled retired cop with a haunted past. Kerry Washington, as the sister, has talent, but is given poorly written scenes that even seasoned veterans would have trouble with. However, Gary Oldman is quite good...Oldman is by far one of the best actors working today, and one must assume that, like the rest of us, he has mortgage. He still plays one-dimensional bad guys better than anyone (LEON, LOST IN SPACE, TRUE ROMANCE), and in SIN he does try. (Watch him work in a powerful showdown in a mirrored bedroom, or his oration on conscience.) Perhaps he read the script and thought there was potential, which there is, but the director, Michael Stevens, decides to play the movie slick, wasting time and talent. I just hope this does not signal a trend to Oldman's career. There has been a couple of Oldman straight-to-video releases of late (NOBODY'S BABY, INTERSTATE 60, TIPTOES) after a steady string of high-profile films during the 90's. If he keeps making films like this he could end up like Brian Cox, a good actor who shows up as a police official or someone's crazy dad in below average productions like SIN. That would be a shame.SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I will give SIN credit, I have not seen a movie that ends with the villain being engulfed into quicksand in years. As improbable as that sounds, the quicksand scene isn't that bad, thanks mostly due to Oldman's pride during this surreal finale. 4/10.