"Wrong Side of Town" was so close of coming across the good side of town of nice actions films I could ever see that I almost feel bad for being negative about it.
Writer and director David DeFalco simply took this film to a wrong turn that managed to ruin the experience as a whole. Not saying this isn't a worth seeing movie but I must warn potential viewers that you are about to get disappointed, confused and feeling that you wasted your time for a while. There's worst out there, but
there's always something better too, and that's why you shouldn't bother watching it for the sake of finding something better out there.
With nothing outside of the box in terms of action plots, this one has Rob Van Dam playing an ex-Marine who happened to be at an allegedly nice place to have some fun with his wife and a couple of friends at this club commanded by a criminal lord. Things go dangerously sour when his wife is assaulted by the pervert brother of the brother and our hero accidentally kills the guy which causes a huge manhunt on him, his wife and friends when the tough bad guy calls all the criminals in town to revenge his brother's death. For the audience's delight, the hero is a fast and smart killing machine who have all the skills and some fortune to help him getting out of the situation. But when he finds out that his daughter was kidnapped, that's when the rules of the game will change for good.
Let's go with the goods: first-rate action sequences, all thrilling and well-executed, one climatic moment after another when Van Dam fights the bad guys or has to escape from everyone following him and his wife. I really felt for the guy and I kept rooting for him and everyone suffering with him - despite the lead actor have zero charisma. That's just the goods cos after that it's all downhill but let's just say that this turn of events was at the final minutes of the run. A small possible distraction of mine is to blame, for I'm not completely wrong when towards the conclusion one of the baddies actually switch positions without a plausible reasons for such act and goes up against the main villain. It didn't seem valid, understanble and by that time the film simply rushed its conclusion to make audiences feel good. Not sure with what. To me, here's another severe case of bad writing ruining a whole experience. But it's not like we're talking about an award winning film or a box-office hit, it's a straight-to-video thing that popped in on TV and I couldn't resist watching it cos it seemed pretty decent from the get-go. Such a disappointment but I guess we all get lost and confused sometimes. Almost no harm done. 4/10
With nothing outside of the box in terms of action plots, this one has Rob Van Dam playing an ex-Marine who happened to be at an allegedly nice place to have some fun with his wife and a couple of friends at this club commanded by a criminal lord. Things go dangerously sour when his wife is assaulted by the pervert brother of the brother and our hero accidentally kills the guy which causes a huge manhunt on him, his wife and friends when the tough bad guy calls all the criminals in town to revenge his brother's death. For the audience's delight, the hero is a fast and smart killing machine who have all the skills and some fortune to help him getting out of the situation. But when he finds out that his daughter was kidnapped, that's when the rules of the game will change for good.
Let's go with the goods: first-rate action sequences, all thrilling and well-executed, one climatic moment after another when Van Dam fights the bad guys or has to escape from everyone following him and his wife. I really felt for the guy and I kept rooting for him and everyone suffering with him - despite the lead actor have zero charisma. That's just the goods cos after that it's all downhill but let's just say that this turn of events was at the final minutes of the run. A small possible distraction of mine is to blame, for I'm not completely wrong when towards the conclusion one of the baddies actually switch positions without a plausible reasons for such act and goes up against the main villain. It didn't seem valid, understanble and by that time the film simply rushed its conclusion to make audiences feel good. Not sure with what. To me, here's another severe case of bad writing ruining a whole experience. But it's not like we're talking about an award winning film or a box-office hit, it's a straight-to-video thing that popped in on TV and I couldn't resist watching it cos it seemed pretty decent from the get-go. Such a disappointment but I guess we all get lost and confused sometimes. Almost no harm done. 4/10