Stiletto (2008)

Seeing the cast list for this, is almost like a "who-is-who" of a lot of known bit part players from the 80s! Really good actors too. If I'd started listing them IMDb would tell me, that I have no more room to write an actual review. Suffice to say, that whether you know those people or not, they do deliver.Whose not fully delivering, is Katic! Which is a shame, because her role is the crucial one. And while I love looking at her (even while or when does horrible things), I have to admit, that she cannot carry this movie as she should. The action on the other hand is nicely filmed, the plot/story is decent enough too. With a better lead, this could've been a winner! As it stands, it just is above average (and still cut by a lot of minutes in Germany, a version I refused to watch, so the rating and review goes for the uncut version)

After watching hundreds of films, you almost know what's going to happen next and often becomes somewhat predictable. Not so with this film. The minute you recognize the main movie star and his acting is par, you can sense the movie is going to be interesting. That's what this film is all about. It was entitled 'The Velvet Spider' 's abroad, but " Stiletto " in America and tells the story of a vengeful female assassin (Stana Katic) who believes some mobsters and their leaders are responsible for her sister's death. However, the main gangster is unaware of her assumptions or her quest, is only concern with the recovery of his two million dollars. Although aware of the assassin, he believes a single cop (Paul Sloan) can stop her, if not his top hit men (Michael Biehn and William Forsythe) in his organization will. The movie is exciting, action-packed and strewed with murder, violence killings and general mayhem. The actors in the cast are superb and very convincing. It's not often a director like Nick Vallelomga and a writer like Paul Sloan are teamed to create a gritty film like this one. ****

Raina is a annoying and not a very likable girl on the hunt to avenge and uncover the truth about her sister's kidnapping. When she discovers that her former lover, mob boss Virgil Vadalos, and his associates are directly responsible, she is out for vengeance. The thing is, I just didn't care for any of the characters, especially Raina the protagonist. In fact when it started to get closer to the end of the film, I just wanted her to die. This is a pretty bad revenge movie plain and simple. The twist was even predictable and don't even care for it at all what so ever, it is weak. It's a boring revenge flick, there is plenty of better films of this type of genre not even really worth the price of rental. The cover seemed a bit promising, but don't judge this film by it's cover cause it sucks.2.8/10

Don't listen to any of these negative reviews posted about this so far. They are very wrong, If you are into crime or revenge films you will love this. It has a Kill Bill & Thriller: A Cruel Picture vibe with a female assassin taking revenge on the ones who wronged her in the past in a different setting & different motivations obviously but you get the point. Anyone see the new TV show "Castle"? Well this features the co-star of it Stana Katic (24, Feast of Love, Quantum of Solace, The Librarian 3, & The Spirit) as the lead character looking for vengeance. Writer Paul Sloan co-stars as the cop stuck in the middle of this mess. Tom Berenger (Big Chill, Platoon, Major League 1/2, Sniper Trilogy, Training Day, & Detective) chews up the scenery as the main villain with henchmen Michael Biehn (Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Navy Seals, Tombstone, The Rock, Magnificent Seven, & Planet Terror) & William Forsythe (Halloween, Devil's Rejects, Deuce Bigalow, Gotti, The Rock, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, Out for Justice, Dick Tracy, Extreme Prejudice, & Raising Arizona) helping him control the chaos caused by Katic. Plus this film has an amazing supporting cast with Diane Venora (Heat, The Insider, & The Jackal), Kelly Hu (X2, No Way Back, & Friday the 13th 8: Jason Takes Manhattan), James Russo (Beverly Hills Cop, Extremities, Dangerous Game, & Donnie Brasco), Tom Sizemore (Heat, Point Break, Passenger 57, True Romance, Natural Born Killers, Witness to the Mob, & Saving Private Ryan), Dominique Swain (Face/Off, Lolita, Out of Season, & Alpha Dog), Tony Lip (The Sopranos, Donnie Brasco, Goodfellas, Pope of Greenwich Village, & Year of the Dragon), D.B. Sweeney (Eight Men Out, Spawn, & Jericho), Robert R. Shafer (Bob from TV's The Office), David Proval (Star Chamber, Monster Squad, Mean Streets, Romeo Is Bleeding, Shawshank Redemption, Four Rooms, Smokin' Aces, & The Sopranos) plus two former Leatherfaces in cameo roles R.A. Mihailoff (Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Trancers III, Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings, & Fallen Angels) & Andrew Bryniarski (Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake/TCM: The Beginning, Black Mask 2, Any Given Sunday, Higher Learning, Street Fighter, Batman Returns, & Hudson Hawk). Highly recommended, Check it out ASAP....