Kings of South Beach (2007)

I think the true story "Kings of South Beach" is based on could have made for a good movie, but unfortunately under these particular hands the end results are rather lacklustre. The main problem with the movie is that it isn't very interesting or compelling. It moves at a really slow pace for the most part, with only a minimum of story; there is a lot of padding here. The two central characters aren't terribly interesting, unless you count the fact that there is some unintentional amusement with Donnie Wahlberg resembling Christian Slater. Wahlberg and Jason Gedrick do what they can in these roles, but because their characters are so dull there's about as much chemistry as rubbing two wet noodles together. It doesn't help that the entire enterprise has a really cheap feeling to it, which is no surprise given than the movie was made for television. You would be much better off rewatching "Donnie Brasco" instead of watching this wannabe.

Donnie Wahlberg and Jason Gedrick team up again - they were both in the excellent Boomtown - but this time it just doesn't work. Gedrick is a night club owner in Miami who it seems is also dabbling in some money laundering with the local Columbian underworld. Wahlberg - we are lead to believe - looks like a small time hoodlum trying his luck away from the cold of New York. They team up and the film tells their story.But what is the story exactly? A lot of the film centres around the night club, drinking, smoking. Some parties and doing weights are thrown in but the whole thing doesn't make much sense. Any important events seem to happen off-screen where we - the viewer - have no idea what is going on. The thing becomes too hard to swallow and by the time the little twist (and I mean 'little') comes - we have gone beyond caring.The writer that brought us Goodfella's did not rediscover his golden touch here. Pileggi started to dip on Casino but this is a disaster. Although he doesn't exactly have De Niro, Liotta, Scorese on tap here. And this is just a TV movie too.On the plus side - the scenery is nice. Wahlberg tries his best. On the negative side - and there is a lot - Gedrick's character never comes through as believable, Wahlberg must have been told to be the most disgusting person in the world for his character, bad acting from many of the bit players (the Russians come to mind here), some poorly done car chases, a jumpy/chopped script, the wasting of both Bauer and Chavira and many more.Poor effort - 4/10.

When I heard about this movie and found out it was based on a true story, I was curious. Because after Miami Vice, everyone likes to see shows and movies that use Miami as a main location. So I rented this movie expecting nothing special.Let me say it's a decent movie. The acting is OK, although Brian Goodman didn't look comfortable in some scenes with actors who didn't get the job done. But I could still get through that. The only negative comment I have on this movie is that it felt rushed and some scenes seemed missing. But overall, I give it a 6. Nothing memorable, but definitely worth a watch.

This is actually a very good movie. Most movies that are made for TV are always missing out on certain things that the big movies have, but not this time. The story revolves around Andy Burnett (Wahlberg) and Chris Troiano (Gedrick). Andy Burnett has just moved down to South Beach and is looking for some work, he happens upon Troiano, who is a night club owner. Andy starts out as just a bouncer, but scores some major poins with Troiano (warns him about a police raid, backs him up in a fight against some russians), so pretty soon Troiano takes Andy under his wing. I can't go any further into the plot cause it would ruin the entire movie. But let me just say, watch this film cause it is very good. Good story, good acting, a few good fight and action scenes, and great chemistry between the two main stars. I give it a 7/10, cause I would definitely watch it again.