13 (2011):

Starring:
Sam Riley - Vince Ferro

Jason Statham - Jasper

Mickey Rourke - Jefferson

Michael Shannon - Henry

 Ray Winstone - Ronald Lynn Bagges

David Zayas - Detective Larry Mullane

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson - Jimmy

Alexander Skarsgård - Jack

Synopsis:

A naive young man assumes a dead man's identity and finds himself embroiled in an underground world of power, violence, and chance where men gamble behind closed doors on the lives of other men. 

Review:

A straight to DVD film that had the potential to be entertaining. It definitely has the action-star power that could carry the film, BUT it doesn't. The main reason is because even though Statham, Rourke & Winstone as the main draws for the film, they are all secondary & minor characters to unknown actors who have been cast in the main roles or the roles that are important in the plot. A Plot which when I first saw a trailer for the film, the concept of it was awesome. The concept of the film is that rich & powerful men from all over the world travel to to New York City to gamble on an underground Russian roulette tournament. They each bring their own participant who is guaranteed money if they survive. Throughout the course of the tournament new bets can be placed & sometimes they trade who they represent with someone who has already lost there participant for money. That is where the movie stops being remotely interesting & follow-able. So this kid, who's father is dieing of an accident & that his family cannot afford to pay the bills, gets a job working for a family as an electrician. When he over hears the owner of the house & some guy who they never give a name or identity to (played by former UFC Light Heavyweight Champ Forrest Griffin) he finds about about the roulette ring. But of course then he overdoses on heroine the night before the tournament, so Vince takes his spot in the game, much to the dislike of the men in charge they can't go on without players. Each is assigned a number Vince is given "13", Aw cute that's the title of the film.... They are all placed in a giant circle, given a gun with one bullet to start, they must spin the round until they are told to stop, point it at the back of the guy in front's head & then when a light bulb turns on, they have to pull the trigger. I guess i don't really need to explain Russian roulette but that's the jist of it. Well from there you get a cluster f' of plot holes, just random b.s. of characters back stories that are completely uninteresting & unimportant. Not to mention that HORRIBLE acting of Sam Riley. You would think that going from an average, suburban Ohio kid who is just trying to help his father live to a kid with a gun, who may or may not kill the man standing in front of him would be a major change in character. Well you would be wrong. Other than an early scene where he is in the first round & doesn't pull the trigger, his acting is bland, poor & consists of the wrong emotion or no emotion from a kid who has just shot people in the back of the head. Then after they get down to the final 6 they go to "The Duel" which is just one vs one until they get down to two. However, they just kind of skip ahead to final without showing anything between the draw & that. The ending/climax is very fast, predictable & un-suspenseful. The fact of the matter is because of the poor acting, the amount of irrelevant plot & the poor production value your never invested in the main character of Vince & you don't ever cheer for him to survive because we'll lets face it, you don't give an f' by this point. Mickey Rourke was decent even though his role was small & he didn't have a tons of line. Jason Statham was also decent, however he didn't have to do a whole lot of acting, just a lot of being in the shot & reacting. You do get to see him cry towards the end as his brother (played by Winstone) loses but it's not enough to say he was good. 50 Cent is barely in it but gets a top billing on the DVD, his acting is horrible, it is almost like they had to dumb down his lines so he could actually remember them. Alexander Skarsgård was actually the best in the film but again he had a minor role with limited camera time & lines. Bonus points for a cameo appearance from Pride & UFC Veteran Don "Predator" Frye!

S.P.R.: D/28

Acting: 5/10

Plot: 6/10

Cinematography: 4/10

Intrigue: 6/10

Extra: 5/10