SHOOTING GALLERY (2005)

Directed by Keoni Waymon. Starring: Freddie Prinze, Jr., Ving Rhames, Roselyn Sanchez, Callum Keith Renee Synopsis: An aspiring pool hustler joins the inner circle of a powerful New Orleans pool shark and soon finds himself in the middle of a dangerous hustle as he is manipulated by a corrupt police officer and his boss while falling in love with the gambling addicted siren who led him into the pool hall that now jeopardizes his life.  

If you are an action movie fan and you see a title with Ving Rhames in it, you expect it to be pretty good. Shooting Gallery is a movie that holds a lot of promise, delivers on some it and falls far short in others.  

The setting is the seedy underbelly of hard drinking, gambling, and pool sharking New Orleans. Jericho (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) is an aspiring young pool hustler who makes his way to the Shooting Gallery, a pool hall empire run with deliciously classy malevolence by Cueball Carl (Ving Rhames). Quickly seeing Jericho as a prodigious pool talent, Carl quickly makes him his prize hustler and money winner, with the pressure always on to play the hustle to perfection. The opening of the movie shows as a flashback murder in which Carl pulls the trigger. This scene soon makes sense to us as Jericho is rousted by  burned out cop Mortenson, who is obviously teetering on the edge of sanity (Callum Keith Renee) and solicits Jericho to help him set up Carl as the victim in the opening movie was the partner of Mortenson.

Of course, it wouldn't be a movie (would it?) without at least a hint of a romantic interest and Jericho quickly has eyes for the pool hall honey (Roselyn Sanchez), and they progress, somewhat haphazardly, to develop a physical intimacy at the same time they are trying to get over on Cueball Carl.

Its obvious that the main goal of Shooting Gallery is to bring to life the subculture of pool, and the movie succeeds in doing that. Now, whether the portrayal is accurate or not might depend on your in depth knowledge of the game as its played for money in gambling joints and pool halls, as opposed to the friendly game the rest of us play on Saturday afternoons when its raining out or at the club before the good dance music starts.

The soundtrack of the movie is excellent, and probably the best part of the film. The score is perfect for the feel and tempo of the film and is used well, sometimes to the distraction of the dialogue. This is not as big a problem as you might think because the story, while interesting in parts, is uneven, hard to follow and a little too far fetched. The names (Cueball Carl, Tenderloin Tony, etc.) are a little hard to buy and the streaming titles that are constantly defining the incomprehensible pool lingo that is used throughout the film are annoying.

What saves the film from disaster and makes it a decent film to have or watch as long as your expectations are not too high are the performances of some of the actors. Ving Rhames is just as you would expect him to be: seethingly sinister but likeable anyway. Freddie Prinze Jr. is not bad as Jericho. For those of you who are not familiar with his TV work you will be pleasantly surprised as he holds his own. The biggest problem for me is a troubling similarity to Keanu Reaves in his look and voice in this film. Roselyn Sanchez is delicious to see and plays the familiar role of sultry siren very well.

Callum Keith Renee is the standout in this film, however, as his character is so over the top and fun to watch that he steals virtually every scene that he is in and you can't take your eyes off of him. Very good work by Mr. Renee. Also, hard core NFL fans will enjoy a brief cameo by former Football bad boy Bill Romanowski.

If you want to see some neat pool action and a few real good alpha male scenes, this flick isn't bad. For anything more, you might be a little disappointed.