Gangland 2002 Horror Movie Review

The first thirty minutes of this film made me think it would be “craptastic”...you know, bad in a fun way. Unfortunately, it shortly digresses into a direct-to-video piece of junk.

For one thing, you don’t really know where the hell you are in this thing. The opening scene with Coolio and Ice-T (who I agree are the best characters in this thing, if they are only about five minutes of it) in New York City quickly switches to Atlanta, GA - then suddenly to Los Angelas, CA, where characters are talking about Pheonix, Arizona! What is up with this? The writers must think the United States is only ten miles wide!

Now as I said before, the first half of this movie was pretty fun. A guy and his brother are attacked by gangs and they kill his brother. The man breaks out of jail with the help of an ex-soldier and together they plan to take down the gang leader “Lucifer.” Then comes the romantic love interest, a blonde ex-soldier who can’t act. They agree to take her with them on their quest because she saved their lives (she drove the get-away car).

Their attack on Lucifer’s hide-out consists of charging into the front door, manned by hundreds of gang thugs, and then running away like chickens when the male ex-soldier is captured. Doh! Good one, guys!

The “main character” wants to go back and save his buddy and the girl wants to tag along again, claiming she’s good with “agility and speed.” She must mean she can run fast because whenever they’re attacked her first action is to run away and leave her comrades to the gangs. Great sidekick!

They barge through the front door again (bet the gangs didn’t see that coming), save a scientist with a cure for the modern plague, save the ex-soldier, and leave. Movie over, right?

Nope! Taking a cue from “Brotherhood of the Wolf” the movie proceeds to kill off the most likable character and then drag the movie on for another hour. Then as if to appease the audience it cops out and just ends. Period.

It tries to feel like the post-apocalyptic films of the 80’s, but it just doesn’t work any more. The characters are poorly developed (Lucifer goes from being an animal to quoting Sun Tzu) and the setting isn’t well realized - I find it amazing people can just drive through a basic war zone talking about gangs like they’re their neighbors. Here’s an idea: if an area has heavy gang control…don’t go there!