The Bannen Way (2010)

I caught this movie on TV.It might be a movie but it feels more like an episode of some TV-series. (update: Now I'm reading that is actually a 16 episodes web-series!) The Bannen Way, has a "hype"(not necessarily a good thing) and it takes some "creative liberties" that we have already seen in other movies or series. At some point (like in the presentation of the characters) it even resembles some Robert Rodriguez films.My main objection though is about the cast. Although there are a few (relatively) well known actors, they haven't the weight to support all the "hype" I previously mentioned. The main actor (Mark Gantt) doesn't fill the screen with his presence. The "hot" women aren't that hot either, and Robert Forster (Mr. B) looks more like "grandpa" in "Last man standing" (with Tim Allen) than a threatening mob boss.Anyway it isn't very interesting and it is only mildly entertaining, but if you don't have to pay to see it and you have 90' to kill, check it out...

A slick, sexy, action-packed show about Neal Bannen, a charming con-man with a police chief for a father, a mob boss for an uncle and a weakness for beautiful women, who wants to turn his life around and leave the criminal lifestyle forever. Let me get this off my chest right off the bat. A huge problem I have with these web series watched on Crackle is that you're forced to watch about 90 seconds of ads before you watch the 6 minute show. And let's not forget that the titles are at least 30 seconds, maybe a minute. What becomes worse is that once you get the pilot behind you, these bozos add about another minute to 90 seconds of flashbacks for each episode because they think you son't remember what happens in 5 minutes of footage you just watched! Oh, and there's another minute of titles at the end. So the actual programming is about 4 minutes or less. It's so annoying. OK, on with the review. Truth is, there is nothing special about this show. It follows the same boring tired format that all these shows want to follow.Pretentious lady's man gets in and out of trouble. Lots of narration to explain the plot because the producers think we're too stoned to understand. I'd rather they not make this trash than waste out time. This show is no better or worse than any of the others. And that's not saying much. Hint: when you try so hard to be kewl, it just means you're not kewl.

When you consider that this "movie" is really a collection of back to back webisodes, it is quite an achievement. This movie is really a Season 1 DVD played back to back, so of course there will be harsh transitions and rapid fire pacing in keeping with the style of all webisodes.There were 13 episodes, and each ep was about 5-6 minutes. When you consider the origin of this "movie", this is a marvel. It has style, it has pretty decent dramatic pacing (esp. for a web series)- I think it would be better if this thing is viewed as a Season One disc rather than a stand alone movie, because that's what it is. Is there anything "new" or cutting edge? Only that it was a web series and a successful one at that. I am not sure how one gets all those actors to star in such a thing, and I am sure the writers were in the middle of uncharted territory, so I would be interested if this series continues. As it stands, don't view the Bannan Way as a clichéd mob movie but rather an indication of things to come from the world of web series.

I'm watching the movie right now and I'm now half the way. But it looks to me that the creators of this movie watch too much Guy Richie and Quintin Tarrantino movies and wanted to make such movies too. So they copied their style, their stories, their type of characters and made this movie. It doesn't look original. It would be if the movie was shot 15 years ago, but now a days it isn't. Annyway, the positive thing about the movie is that it looks cool and sexy, but anything else is copied too much from Richie, Tarrantino and who else. If the people who made this would have add something new or original too it, it would have been something. I don't know if I want to continue watching the movie any further.