Directed by Franck Khalfoun Starring: Cuba Gooding, Jr., Miguel Ferrer, Harvey Keitel, Noel Gugliemi, Mike Starr, Lenora Varela, Johnny Messner. Action/ Mob/Gangsters Synopsis: A high ranking loan shark takes out a drug dealer who he believes intends to kill him, not knowing he has just killed someone connected to the biggest drug dealer in the region and a war is started.
The plot in Wrong Turn At Tahoe is very pedestrian and well worn for fans of the gangster genre. A succesful loan shark, Vincent, (Miguel Ferrer Traffic) finds out through his enforcer, Joshua, (Cuba Gooding, Jr. End Game) that a drug dealer named Frankie Tahoe (Noel Gugliemi Training Day) intends to kill him.
Not one to sit around and wait for things to happen, he decides to be proactive and takes the liberty of killing Tahoe first. Unfortunately, it turns out that Tahoe was a very good earner for the biggest drug kingpin around, Nino (Harvey Keitel Cop Land) . Well, this doesn't sit to well with Nino and the debt has to be repaid. But, Vincent didn't get to be where he is by paying debts, he made it by collecting them, so he doesn't exactly hit it off with Nino when the two meet, and the underworld war is on.
Pretty standard stuff as far as these types of flicks go, so nothing to get excited about in and of itself. But, what makes this one very good in my view is the characters we see in this flick and its due to some excellent performances, especially from Ferrer. Vincent is one of the sleeker and old hearted gangsters you'll see on film, but he's not one dimensional. Oh no, he is a happily married man who has his faith and won't hear blasphemy. Interesting character composite and Ferrer makes it work well when on the face of the character we could predict he would be unrealistic. The key, in my opinion, to a good movie "bad guy" is you should kind of like him even while you root against him, assuming you root for the good guys.
The choice is a little harder, here, because there are no "good guys" in terms of cops or other upstanding citizens, so that makes things less complicated, though we need to keep our disbelief suspended that no one in the good neighborhood hears all those shots without maybe calling 911.
Ferrer isn't the only one turning in a very good performance. Cuba Gooding, Jr. has definitely undertaken a very non-commercial path since his Oscar but I'm not as sure as some that its a negative because he's really played a breadth of characters, and this is another interesting one. Since, we're used to primarily seeing him as the good guy, its kind of neat to see him as a cerebral leg breaker, who actually has some emotions. We don't usually see-nor want-to see our legbreakers this way in gangster flicks, so that could be why it works well here with a talented actor.
Last, but not least, Keitel is as good as you expect in his role as well, he's just born to play this type of character. Though the cast is not full of buffed out 20 somethings, don't be fooled, there is plenty of shoot 'em up and hand to hand combat action. If that is what you're looking for, you won't be disappointed.
Plain and simple, if you like gangster flicks, this is one you need to see when you get the chance.
The plot in Wrong Turn At Tahoe is very pedestrian and well worn for fans of the gangster genre. A succesful loan shark, Vincent, (Miguel Ferrer Traffic) finds out through his enforcer, Joshua, (Cuba Gooding, Jr. End Game) that a drug dealer named Frankie Tahoe (Noel Gugliemi Training Day) intends to kill him.
Not one to sit around and wait for things to happen, he decides to be proactive and takes the liberty of killing Tahoe first. Unfortunately, it turns out that Tahoe was a very good earner for the biggest drug kingpin around, Nino (Harvey Keitel Cop Land) . Well, this doesn't sit to well with Nino and the debt has to be repaid. But, Vincent didn't get to be where he is by paying debts, he made it by collecting them, so he doesn't exactly hit it off with Nino when the two meet, and the underworld war is on.
Pretty standard stuff as far as these types of flicks go, so nothing to get excited about in and of itself. But, what makes this one very good in my view is the characters we see in this flick and its due to some excellent performances, especially from Ferrer. Vincent is one of the sleeker and old hearted gangsters you'll see on film, but he's not one dimensional. Oh no, he is a happily married man who has his faith and won't hear blasphemy. Interesting character composite and Ferrer makes it work well when on the face of the character we could predict he would be unrealistic. The key, in my opinion, to a good movie "bad guy" is you should kind of like him even while you root against him, assuming you root for the good guys.
The choice is a little harder, here, because there are no "good guys" in terms of cops or other upstanding citizens, so that makes things less complicated, though we need to keep our disbelief suspended that no one in the good neighborhood hears all those shots without maybe calling 911.
Ferrer isn't the only one turning in a very good performance. Cuba Gooding, Jr. has definitely undertaken a very non-commercial path since his Oscar but I'm not as sure as some that its a negative because he's really played a breadth of characters, and this is another interesting one. Since, we're used to primarily seeing him as the good guy, its kind of neat to see him as a cerebral leg breaker, who actually has some emotions. We don't usually see-nor want-to see our legbreakers this way in gangster flicks, so that could be why it works well here with a talented actor.
Last, but not least, Keitel is as good as you expect in his role as well, he's just born to play this type of character. Though the cast is not full of buffed out 20 somethings, don't be fooled, there is plenty of shoot 'em up and hand to hand combat action. If that is what you're looking for, you won't be disappointed.
Plain and simple, if you like gangster flicks, this is one you need to see when you get the chance.
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