Domino

I can understand why Keira Knightley, Mickey Rourke and even Delroy Lindo wanted to make this movie and I can see where it could have been great. Sadly, director Tony Scott and writer Richard Kelly did not deliver on the promise Domino had.

Then again Scott has been very erratic over the length of his career. He directed really good films like Top Gun, Enemy of the State, Crimson Tide, True Romance and Spy Game but also clunkers like Beverly Hills Cop II, Days of Thunder and The Fan and especially rail spike in the forehead bad Man on Fire. Kelly, a fellow Trojan alum, had only previously written (and directed) the cult classic Donnie Darko, which I’ve never seen.

The elements are all there: Knightley plays Domino Harvey, the daughter of ’50s film star Lawrence Harvey, who never fit with the fast, rich crowd into which she was born. Modeling and school bored her and instead of turning to drugs or sex she got into martial arts and action; she tossed the runway for bounty hunting, teaming up with Rourke and a smoldering hot Latino guy to work for Lindo.

The movie opens with FBI behavioralist Lucy Liu interrogating Knightley; the rest of the movie is a flashback as Domino tells Liu how things ended up with her all bloody and in custody. Honestly I turned off after 45 disappointing minutes so I’m not really sure how it all turns out but after consideration the problem for me was really down to Scott’s directing. After all these years you’d think he’d have the big action flick down solid but apparently not–trust me I won’t be spending money or time seeing his current release, Deja Vu, in the theaters or when it turns up on TV.

not recommended