Home | Anime | Movies | Soundtracks | Graphic Novels
Bad Country
Score: 70%
Rating: R
Publisher: Sony Pictures Home
                  Entertainment

Region: A
Media: Blu-ray/1
Running Time: 104 Mins.
Genre: Crime/Action/Drama
Audio: English Stereo
Subtitles: English

Features:
  • Deleted Scenes
  • Taking Down an Empire: On the Set

Originally entitled Whiskey Bay, Bad Country is the labor of love from recently deceased Director Chris Brinker, whose previous fame includes being the Producer of the uber-violent action flick The Boondock Saints and its sequel. Bad Country is along a similar vein as far as the action goes, but has Baton Rouge police detective Bud Carter (Willem Dafoe) making an unlikely alliance with contract killer Jesse Weiland (Matt Dillon) when Carter sees an opportunity to tumble a crime empire. When Carter busts Weiland for a handful of felonies and Weiland doesn't even seem ruffled, Carter realizes there must be more than a few skeletons in Weiland's closet. When a member of Weiland's family ends up dead, Carter convinces Weiland to work for him to bring down Louisiana crime boss Lutin (Tom Berenger) while Carter will guarantee protection and care for his wife Lynn (Amy Smart) and his newborn son.

Weiland tells the police, and more specifically, U.S. Attorney Nokes (Bill Duke) that a hit list exists and there are many well known law enforcers and politicians on it. He promises he can get the list, but doing so means getting back into bed with Lutin, an incredibly dangerous man. As Weiland seeks to get back into Lutin's good graces and hopes to nab a few contract kills to get his hands on the list, Lutin finds himself politically entangled with a fast-talking lobbyist named Morris (Kevin Chapman, Person of Interest) and a protective lawyer named Kiersey (Neal McDonough). As a noose tightens itself around Lutin's neck, he must determine the identity of the traitor in his midst, and once he does, a hail of bullets will reign down on Carter and Weiland.

I am always interested in films that take place in my hometown of Baton Rouge, so I wanted to see Bad Country. The film is okay as an action flick and the accents are decent, except for Tom Berenger's as Lutin, which is way overdone. Willem Dafoe and Matt Dillon are both good actors and do well in their respective roles, I just didn't find the film particularly compelling. I did enjoy Neal McDonough as Lutin's lawyer. He normally plays a pretty bad dude and it was amusing to see him cower and grovel a bit.

The special features are slim and include a handful of wisely deleted scenes and a making-of featurette that, to be honest, was a bit difficult to watch. Seeing Chris Brinker discuss Bad Country and the fact that its been in the works for a decade or so, only to know he passed away as production was wrapping just put a very sad taint on it. Overall, Bad Country is just ok. It was amusing to see a Baton Rouge local bar, Happy's Irish Pub, several times in the film, but if you aren't from Baton Rouge, you won't enjoy pointing out landmarks in the film and will be left with only a mediocre cop film.



-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications
AKA Ashley Perkins
Related Links:


This site best viewed in Internet Explorer 6 or higher or Firefox.