Vice (2008)

Directed by: Raul Inglis | 95 minutes | drama, thriller, crime | Actors: Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Mykelti Williamson, Mark Boone Junior, Kurupt, John Cassini, Nicholas Lea, Aaron Pearl, Matthew Robert Kelly, Peter LaCroix, Emy Aneke, Betty Linde, Justine Warrington, Martin Cummins, Frank Cassini

Advice in advance. First swallow one or two tablets of paracetamol and only then watch this film. Unless of course you are a student at the Film Academy, then this is the perfect opportunity to learn something about what not to do: bombastic religious, philosophical posturing, a portion of raunchy, gratuitous sex, cheap juggling with flashbacks and accelerated images to to give the poor story supposedly depth and an overdose of tormented looks from the main character.

The main character. Max Walker is a troubled police officer who has lost his wife to a deadly disease. Every day he drinks himself into a coma and on the assembly line he picks up hookers in the street with a lot of emphasis on the fact that he only lets them jerk off or at most give them a blowjob. Whether that is not to tarnish the memory of his deceased wife or for religious reasons remains a mystery, who knows. And as if all this wasn’t bad enough, he all too often puts his colleagues into a frenzy by asking them over and over to help him fix his ‘mistakes’. This is also a fact that is emphasized a lot, but explanation why Walker so often has to cover up his mistakes, oh well…

The intrigue. Along with his partner Sampson (Mykelti Williamson), Walker poses as a drug dealer during an undercover operation. However, the criminals smell fuse and just as Walker’s buddy Samspon is about to be murdered, their colleagues invade. Despite their quick actions, one of the criminals manages to escape. When Walker starts the chase with Salt (Daryl Hannah) instead of the injured Sampson, he shoots a girl. On closer inspection, the girl turns out to be unarmed. In order not to get in trouble, Walker asks Salt to retrieve one of the guns from the shot criminals, so he can put it with the girl and claim to have acted in self-defense. In the days that follow, all the colleagues involved in the raid are liquidated one by one. A large consignment of drugs also appears to have been stolen. At first, the escaped criminal is suspected, but when Walker and Sampson find his body in a dump, they know a dirty cop is at work.

The conclusion. Every minute spent on this horribly bad film is one too many, so a short piece of advice: don’t watch it