ROCKAWAY

Saturday, November 22, 2008

ROCKAWAY MOVIE

Trane (Nicholas Gonzalez, Spun, Dirty) is a decorated war hero stationed in Afghanistan, until he gets the word that his wife and infant child have been brutally murdered. Once he returns home to Rockway, New Jersey, Trane runs into his old friend Dave (Ricardo Chavira, Desperate Housewives), a homeless man who offers insight on how Trane�s family died. Dave describes the new forces of crime and prostitution that have moved into the neighborhood, the same forces that led to the demise of his family. Trane vows to exact his revenge on every last lowlife and mobster even remotely involved in his family�s death.

While on his quest for answers, Trane throws caution to the wind and openly starts a war with the local face of the crime syndicate, Juju (Mario Cimarro, Romeo+Juliet) and his entourage of pimps, thugs and prostitutes led by the volatile Antwan (Manny Perez, Crooklyn, El Cantante). Trane quickly discovers that Juju is simply a local street tough guy compared to his Russian mobster cronies.

Using Juju as a launching pad, Trane quickly infiltrates the Russian mob through a promise made to Ivan (Oleg Taktarov, 15 Minutes, We Own the Night), that being a gift of 50lbs of heroin. Ivan is a shrewd and vicious animal of a man who describes his predilection toward killing with knives rather than a gun due to its personal nature; Trane�s family was killed by knife.

Trane begins to walk a thin line of deceit and crime as he picks apart his enemies by pitting them against each other, and works his way up to crime boss Sergei (Vitali Baganov, Pieces of April).

Rockaway is a low budget film with a budget listed as being a meager two million dollars, and for that it does deserve some praise. The film has strong production value and is ambitious in the size of film produced. Clearly, the filmmakers can produce a product on a tight budget. That being said, Rockaway is a disappointment.

The film starts off strong with a well-built, sympathetic character. The first half of the film maintains a tension that keeps the viewer riveted to their seat, and the editing is creative. The second half of the film is not nearly as powerful. Rockaway just gets worse as the money began to run out. Suddenly, the special effects begin to deteriorate, going from believable and realistic to sub par in quality. Eventually, those special effects resign to looking as if a high school student with a home video camera created them on his laptop with Powerpoint.

Rockaway ends up becoming a huge disappointment. Despite a promising start, it fizzles out quickly. With an 80-minute run-time, it begs the question why such a short film could not maintain its momentum. As the film�s momentum dwindles down to nothing, so does the quality of the plot. Rockaway rapidly becomes simplistic in its intent, the violence becomes senseless and juvenile.

SOURCE : http://www.realmovienews.com/reviews/discs/2046