| Shade (2003) Cast:Sylvester Stallone,Melanie Griffith,Gabriel Byrne,Jamie Foxx, Stuart Townsend,Thandie Newton A group of cardplayers pool their money together to try their luck against the best card player known as "The Dean" to gain their honor, glory and most of all tons of cash however when mob money is used to pay the price to play much havoc ensues, Stallone has his best role in ages in this enjoyable thriller. Suspense is often so hard to find in the genre in the days of Vin Diesel and watered down actionstars but with Shade Stallone has finally made a movie that has impressed me, Get Carter was disappointing, Driven was awful, Eye See You was insipid and Avenging Angelo well the less said the better, Stallone has done so many duds lately that he's turning into the next Chuck Norris but Stallone (Like Charles Bronson) always finds a way to keep keep us guessing, just when you think Stallone is washed up he comes up with a good movie. In 1997 this happened with Cop Land and now in 2003 here we have Shade. Shade is a well acted thriller, it builds such a suspenseful narrative that at times even those upset over Stallone not doing any Rambo-like heroics will be glued to the tube, there are so many twists and turns you can never quite be sure where things are leading. Shade keeps you on your toes and for that I admire this movie, so congratualtions Sly, just when I wanted to give up on you, you turned around and made that good movie we all knew you had in you. D.Damien Nieman *** |