From the rookie director/writer Marcus Warren comes The Heavy featuring action movie stars Gary Stretch and Vinnie Jones. Mitchell “Boots” Mason (Stretch) is a low-key assassin who is not fond of firearms. But after Anawalt (Stephen Rea) offers Boots his final job things get a little messy. Meanwhile, Dunn (Jones) is hired by Mitchell’s brother Christian to take out Boots because he is worried he is trying to assassinate him. The sibling rivalry between Mitchell and Christian heats up and carries the plot of this b-grade action movie.
Mitchell “Boots” Mason is heartbroken over the murder of his wife and daughter and seeks revenge. After getting it, Boots is held on trial for the murder of the man who killed his wife and daughter. The fate of Boots is all up to the decision that his politician brother has to make. Christian decides to send Boots to prison for murder. While in prison Boots decides to take revenge once again but this time to his brother Christian. Before his release, the wealthy thug Anawalt pulls some strings in order to get Boots out to work for him. Anawalt now has Boots in his debt to do anything from chase down people or pick up packages. The last job Anawalt has for Boots includes the assassination of the ex-con's brother Christian. If Boots accomplishes this final job, he will be a truly free man and won’t have to work for Anawalt any longer. Sounds easy right? Unfortunately Christian isn't clueless and hires detective Dunn to catch whoever is trying to kill him.
Now for the subplot, in the midst of all of this, Christian is dying from a genetic disease, which causes the heart to fail. Since it is a genetic disease, Boots has the disease as well but, unlike his brother, he doesn’t have a rare blood type so it's easier to find a transplant. Where the sibling rivalry comes into play is that Christian needs Boots to be his donor so that he can live long enough for a transplant for himself. But, uh oh, Boots really dislikes his brother therefore not giving Christian a transplant. Hold up, where is the female interest? While awaiting the assassination of his brother, Mitchell breaks into an apartment that is suppose to be empty but is currently being occupied by Claire (Shannyn Sossamon). Holding her somewhat hostage leads to an exchange of emotions between the two characters.
Overall Heavy is fairly disappointing. Poor directing and sloppy writing are the critical problems even if you consider it an "action movie", but even that doesn’t sound right because there are only about two or three short scenes that involve any action. Also, as a note to director/writer Warren, just because you can see the bullets in slow motion moving across the screen doesn’t make it a good action scene. The acting done by Gary Stretch seems dull and boring. Throughout the whole movie he might have changed his facial expression once. Vinnie Jones plays a role similar to all the ones he has played in many movies prior (i.e. Snatch, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels). It might be disappointing to say that Vinnie Jones does his best acting yet in The Heavy, but it’s the truth. Stephen Rea seemed a little too nice to play a British thug who isn’t afraid to pull the trigger. Christopher Lee does a good job playing the father of Mitchell and Christian, but his role is much too brief. If the movie took a different route by not focusing on the disease as much and digging deeper into the family and having some more entertaining scenes, maybe The Heavy wouldn’t have been so bad.
One of the few highlights of the film is the soundtrack done by Paul Oakenfold. His music has been featured in movies such as the Matrix trilogy and Shoot ‘Em Up, and here adds an upbeat pace that the movie doesn’t physically deliver.
DVD Bonus Features
There isn’t much to look forward to in the special features section of the disc. All of the behind of the scenes and making of the movie are way too short and barely cover the meat of the movie itself and only cover the few actions scenes made. If you want to see pictures of the movie along with music in the soundtrack, you can access that in the special features, but it's not too exciting if you just watched the movie.
"The Heavy" is on sale December 21, 2010 and is rated R. Action, Thriller. Directed by Marcus Warren. Written by Marcus Warren . Starring Christopher Lee, Gary Stretch, Henry Corden.
