The Power of Few (2013)

'Bound' is an 'ensemble piece' which basically means that it's a film made up with multiple stories, containing multiple characters, all of which sort of cross paths within a twenty minute (on screen) time scale.If you've seen Crash, Crossing Over or 11:14 then you'll sort of know what to expect.However, 'Bound' isn't really as good as any of those. If you don't mind many narratives intercutting with each other, then it's not a bad film, but it does have a feeling of being a little amateurish and uneven.As with all films with so many principle cast members, you'll love some and hate others.But, despite being a little choppy, it is well shot and quite stylish to look at. So, if you like this sort of film and know what you're getting, then you might like to give it a go. Just don't go expecting Christian Slater or Christopher Walken to be in it all the way through – they're just two small pieces in a bigger jumbled-up puzzle.http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

A good idea executed in a bad, bad way... With the exception of 3 actors the whole cast seriously need to go back (or just go for the fist time) to the acting school - bad, fake, forced emotions, just terrible. The basis of the story is there, but told in a really bad way. Mistakes, things that make no sense.. Just a bad movie. You keep on watching hoping it gets better, but it doesn't. Clichés. Predictable. And very poor casting skills. It just makes no sense, just like the fact of this site forcing you to write at least 10 lines about a bad movie, that it is just that - a bad movie. There are no 10 lines to be written about this, it is a waste of ciber ink and this movie is not worth it.

Considering the cast, I expected a much more traditional movie with Christopher Walken and Christian Slater as what I thought were to be the title characters. Well that was not the case and actually these two actors really had roles that were quite irregular for their stature. The entire film was quite unique in that I have only seen one other movie that has a similar format, Vantage Point. The entire movie shows the intersecting experiences of a group of strangers who have varying impacts on each others lives during the day. They are followed to the climax of their individual events and we see how those events and their players affect the outcome of each others life's path. The overall pace and impact of the characters based on individual performances was really a bit of a disappointment until "Fueisha" or "Few" makes her appearance. This young lady is destined for great things as her performance was without question the standout performance and character of this film. I can only say that I wish we had been introduced to her earlier on in the film and that she had considerably more screen time as there is something quite endearing and almost mystical about her. This was a film I was almost ready to give up on and then it captured my attention and then my heart. It really is well worth watching.

One of those circling stories destined to connect different characters from different situations, surrounded by strange events where the small of movements might cause the butterfly effect, changing their lives forever. The hyperlink is a terrific formula when presented in many films but it only works with brilliancy when the speech and the message are truly important, when the cast is fantastic, and when all the elements put together makes total sense, even in its wildest absurdity. Altman, Iñarritú, P.T. Anderson and many others have tasted from this source and made remarkable masterpieces with the hyperlink. "The Power of Few" goes to show that the power of making such movies is really in the hands of few. The cast was good, the situations given to the characters went from relatively good to miserably dull. The message at the ending almost saves the film, after many bumps and pointless conversations and scenes.It revolves around the robbery of the decade happened in Vatican (plot given so little detail and almost irrelevant to the rest of the movie) and a crime drama involving drug dealers, inexperienced thieves, a delivery messenger, two hobos, some secret agents and one smart kid. They're all gathered in one impactant moment, played repeated times each time new characters are introduced in the plot, very similar to the presentation given in "Vantage Point". That's when the movie started to become predictable. Those encounters always to revolve around deaths, accidents and unbelievable schemes. There's no time to care for the characters because they're so brief on the screen, so when they start to get killed, you don't feel anything for them. I only liked the kid (Devon Gearhart) who was trying to rob a drugstore to get medicine for his young brother. All the others were plain annoying, slowing down the movie with their gibberish and small talk. Respect and importance could be given to this project if treated as a serious drama instead of an action flick filled of thrilling moments with a defining purpose only given in the ending. By that time it's so shallow, pretense and hollow. It tries to show how powerful we are (or can be) in moments of weakness and despair, and how everything changes with just one small step, one small action, one mistake. The plot twist comes when it finally uses a retroactive mode to show how things could be for those characters. The tragedy goes off, the good possibilities walks in. So simplistic that hurts. To name a similar (and better) experience I suggest "Blind Chance" (1981), which focus on a man whose life is presented three times to us, with one turning point repeated to us several times, altering a few things. It was a great philosophical film about how small things can affect everyone's lives and how sometimes there's no greater change on the other side, it all leads to catastrophe. Comparing both films is ridiculous since it's not the same kind of audiences who watch them, but I insist you to watch it, and skip "The Power of Few".To quote the smart kid, this is about biting your cheek really hard and having to live with the pain. There's no turning back, you wish it didn't happen but now you're gonna have to live with it. Yes, the pain of having seen this and endure the great Christopher Walken acting in a movie that doesn't deserve his talent. 4/10