Review of Romeo is Bleeding

Introduction

A wife, a mistress and the seductions of a female assassin. These are just a few of the elements that somewhat dishevelled bad cop Jack Grimaldi (Gary Oldman) has in his life on the road to Nowhere`s Ville.

He does a few jobs on the side for local mob boss Falcone (Roy Scheider), earns some money and spends more time with his low rent waitress of a mistress (Juliette Lewis) than his wife (Annabella Sciorra). It`s just one way of passing the time and getting an extra kick out of life. Then he gets the job to dispose of the lethal Russian assassin, Mona Demarkov (Lena Olin) and he finds himself in over his head.

We hear the story played out from his side, which means we get his rather tired narration to go with some tiring visuals. When some cops are slain in a mob hit, our Jack`s conscience kicks in and he doesn`t know what he`s doing anymore except that it`s got to stop. But how do you stop the mob from asking favours and paying you off?

Video

Presented with a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer the film looks in remarkably good condition. Colours look well balanced with a good level of detail throughout. There are minor amounts of dirt, but on the whole the transfer looks solid.

Audio

Nothing fancy to knock your socks off, just a good sounding Dolby Digital 2.0 English soundtrack. Dialogue is pretty much clear all the way through, although some characters do mumble a little, so the subtitles helped. Music and sound effects are loud and clear and add some melancholy to the proceedings.

Features

• Trailer (2:02)

Subtitles in English, French and many others.

Conclusion

Romeo is Bleeding is not a bad film, it`s just not a very good one either. The rhythm of the film stops and starts and could do with some attention to weed out some of the slower scenes. It feels sluggish during the first half and picks up a bit afterwards, but Gary Oldman`s narration doesn`t do us any favours and leads us nowhere. There are some nice action scenes involving the temptress Lena Olin who`s a dangerous woman to be around; Oldman`s trousers always do the talking when he`s around her much to his detriment.

Performance wise Oldman, Olin and Scheider are nothing short of very good. The less said about Juliette Lewis as the low rent waitress the better; well actually she does play the part of `cheap class` really well which means she`s annoying. Romeo is Bleeding could have been better with more attention paid to it but misses the mark. While it provides some entertainment, it`s not a keeper. It is worthy of a rent however to see Oldman and Olin tussle.