It took me a while to rent "Shade." I looked it over in the video store several times and said to myself, "How could a movie with Stallone, Foxx, Griffith, and Byrne possibly be straight-to-video?" And then I thought - rather foolishly - "how bad can it be?"
The answer to that question is very, very bad. Of course it's remarkable that "Shade" failed to get theatrical distribution when it boasts a fairly impressive roster of stars (albeit has-been ones). But it failed because it deserved to fail...because it really is remarkably bad.
I'm trying to think of something, anything, to commend about this movie. But in tedious fact it's yet another story of small-time crooks trying to make big; I've seen a hundred movies like it, and ninety-eight of those were better. I don't care about the characters, who are thinly developed and uniformly scuzzy, and the endless plot twists and double-triple-quadruple crosses get tiresome fast. The profanity-laden dialog lacks wit and falls utterly flat, and the music and direction attempt glitz but come across as gimmicky. In short, it's a disaster.
"Shade" isn't a good little movie that was wronged by the mean old distributors; it's an awful movie that deserved a quick burial. And that's too bad, because Stallone and company could've used a hit to revitalize their careers. But at least Foxx escaped from the stink of this bomb, right?
The answer to that question is very, very bad. Of course it's remarkable that "Shade" failed to get theatrical distribution when it boasts a fairly impressive roster of stars (albeit has-been ones). But it failed because it deserved to fail...because it really is remarkably bad.
I'm trying to think of something, anything, to commend about this movie. But in tedious fact it's yet another story of small-time crooks trying to make big; I've seen a hundred movies like it, and ninety-eight of those were better. I don't care about the characters, who are thinly developed and uniformly scuzzy, and the endless plot twists and double-triple-quadruple crosses get tiresome fast. The profanity-laden dialog lacks wit and falls utterly flat, and the music and direction attempt glitz but come across as gimmicky. In short, it's a disaster.
"Shade" isn't a good little movie that was wronged by the mean old distributors; it's an awful movie that deserved a quick burial. And that's too bad, because Stallone and company could've used a hit to revitalize their careers. But at least Foxx escaped from the stink of this bomb, right?