Entry Twenty-Five: Styx (2001)

Styx (2001)

Dir: Alex Wright

"The diamonds are waiting..."

I know I promised to do something special for my twenty-fifth entry; well, I lied.  Actually, I had planned to do a lengthy write-up on a film that's very near-and-dear to my heart, but I've been very sick for the last several days and now am going to be busy for the next several and just haven't had the time/energy/inspiration to do the entry that that film deserves.  Instead, I'll save that for my fiftieth entry and go the opposite direction for this one...

In this heist flick, Peter Weller plays a guy named...You know what?  I don't give a shit what his name is, and I'm fairly certain nobody involved in the making of this film did, either.  Anyway, Weller's a once-great hold-up man who's purchased a little coffee shop, gotten married and trying to go straight when, stop me if you've heard this one, his ne'er-do-well little brother (Angus McFadyen, Braveheart, Equilibrium) gets in debt to the mob and asks Weller to help him pull one last job.  After catching his wife cheating, Weller says "fuck it" and agrees.  Also on board are a guy Weller once left for dead (Bryan Brown, F/X, Breaker Morant) and Weller's femme fatale ex, who's now fucking Brown.  The usual, tired double-crosses and betrayals occur until only Weller's left alive, with no money to show for it.

This is part of a string of (mostly unmemorable) DTV genre pictures Weller did between his heyday as a B-list leading man and his current career revival playing sleazy guest roles on shows like Dexter and Sons of Anarchy.  EVERYBODY involved seems to realize that they're just making product to fill a slot in a video store, and it shows.  The filmmakers make no attempt to dress up the Los Angeles-set film's South African shooting locations.  At least Weller and Brown are pros and try to do something with their (lazily written) roles...And it IS fun to see the two of them in a movie together, though well past their mid-eighties prime.  Worth watching ONLY if you're a diehard Weller fan (like me).