Well, that was a waste of 101 minutes. I never would have known that .45 existed, if not for the presence of Milla Jovovich. That ignorance of this movie, probably would have been to my overall advantage. It's safe to say that I am not a fan. .45 is basically an R-rated Lifetime Movie of the Week. The story is a messy mix of domestic violence, crime, revenge, double-crosses, and general pointlessness. I was massively disinterested within the first ten minutes, but I forced myself to watch all of it, because of my misguided aversion to not finishing a movie (unless I absolutely must, ex. Darkness). No one came out of this one looking good, even the pretty Ms. Jovovich. I'm struggling to think of a single redeeming quality...nope. I'm drawing a blank. Even if you're a die-hard fan of Milla, I still could not recommend this. She does have talent, but none of it is on display, here. It's been a few months since I've seen a movie that I enjoyed this little.

Directed by: Gary Lennon. Starring: Milla Jovovich, Angus Macfadyen, Stephen Dorff, Aisha Tyler, Sarah Strange. Not released on DVD here quite yet, but working in a video store, I got my hands on a copy of this. I read the synopsis and thought it could be another direct-to-video surprise (like I have had recently) about obsession, deceit and abuse....but I didn't expect this. The story follows Kate and her boyfriend Big Al who sell guns on the streets of New York. He the demanding, overpowering one of the two and believes he is big time, but Kate is the smarter one. When Al believes Kate deceives him, he beats her to a pulp and this leads to a tale of sex and manipulation while trying to execute a plan of revenge. Again, the only reason I saw this was because of a good streak I have had recently with direct-to-DVD films and I was hoping this will be the continuation, but its the drop back. I really had hoped for a deep handle on some of these themes, with a gritty and exciting way of executing them, but I got the opposite. Instead, you get a group of shallow people with no self respect or control and the themes are terribly heavy handed and formulaic, with a twist that was easy to see coming before the hood came down (you'll see). The acting I felt was a little 50/50, Milla Jovovich has her moments and does prove that she has the potential to act, but too many over the top and annoying moments ruin it here. Angus Macfadyen deserved more of a character because he does hold the intensity and the supporting performances from Stephen Dorff and Sarah Strange surprised me....aside from Aisha Tyler, who lacked soul and believability. I can't recommend it, I was hoping for another great direct-to-DVD movie in a streak of them for me recently but I got the opposite. Heavy handed, formulaic, shallow and pure exploitation when it could have been more deep. Disappointing.