Persons Unknown (1996)

I thought this movie had a decent pace,enough in the plot,that it kept my interest. The acting was very competent. Naomi Watts is a very good actress,even in a co-starring role of a girl in a wheel chair,who feels her only chance in life, is to rip off some drug dealers,so she and her sister can make a better life. Joe Montegna ,is an under rated actor,he does very good work when given a decent role to play too. Over all,this is a decent movie,rent it,see it on cable,or online (legally of course). If you want to make a at home double bill on the theme of double dealing crime noir,add No Country for old men,to the double bill.

B-flick. A bunch of people after a bunch of money. Sound familiar? "Persons Unknown" tells of an ex-cop with an unreconciled past who falls in with a couple of babes resulting in a tiny bit of sex, a little bit of action, and a big fat bit of drama. Though the film smacks of the usual Hollywood contrivances, such as killing off all the unnecessary characters as an easy fix for dangling loose ends, it does manage to develop interesting relationships between the principals. Is this a good movie? Probably not. It is worth watching? If you're into crime dramas and happen upon it on cable, probably so. If nothing else you'll get Matenga, Lynch, Watts, some early Hickenlooper, and the option of surfing on. (C+)

I saw this movie back in '99 before I knew who Naomi Watts was, but after seeing it, I made sure to take note of her name in the credits.One thing that I found interesting in this film was their un-cliched use of smoking. In most films, a person only smokes if there is some dramatic reason to due so (eg. To look seductive/sexy, or to show they are bad or "naughty"), but in this film the two sisters just... smoked, plain and simple, and they did so in a manner that made them come across as believable, everyday people. I think there was even a line in there somewhere where Joe's character asks about Naomi's smoking and she replies that her and her sister started when they were kids. A very real scenario, again adding to the characters' believability.I don't smoke myself so I'm not an advocate of the habit, but everything that can be said about this film already has been said in prior comments and so this was simply something different that came to my attention.

This is about a heist gone bad, and Joe Mantagna does his usual adequate job, perhaps not quite as animated as he is in "Jerry and Tom". It may not move along fast enough for some viewers, and the downbeat score keeps it low key. A lot of time is spent on his relationhips with the 2 sisters involved in the heist. But the plot gets interesting, and it's worth a few rental bucks. It's better than Portraits of a Killer, but not quite as good as Route 9 or Phoenix.