1948 / 79m - USA
Crime, Thriller
1.0*/5.0*
Force of Evil poster

Watches

January 07, 2021

1.0*/5.0*

A somewhat dull noir. It seems to be taking itself a little too serious, which isn't really what the genre is good at. Apparently this film is a personal favorite of Scorsese and I guess it shows. It's a somewhat dreary crime story stacked with mean-spirited characters, I just wasn't that impressed.

Joe is a crooked lawyer who plans to bring all independent gambling bosses together under one powerful organization. His brother Leo is one of these bosses, but he isn't willing to play along. Joe isn't planning to give up on his dream and frames his brother, hoping that he'll come asking for his help. Things don't quite turn out as Joe hoped though.

Performances are rather weak, even though the film is short the pacing feels sluggish and the plot isn't much to look at. The film just lacks that juicy, self-aware fun of the better noirs, but at least the cinematography was pretty decent. It's not the worst film ever made, I just didn't find much to enjoy here.