Review of Johnny Handsome

Introduction

Johnny Handsome (Mickey Rourke) was born with a grotesquely deformed face. Living a life of crime with his and life-long friend Mikey the pair get double crossed on a jewellery store robbery which sees Mikey dead and Johnny sent to prison. Whilst there he is attacked and ends up in hospital where he is befriended by Dr. Steven Fisher (Forest Whitaker) who enlists Johnny into a program of reconstructive surgery to remove his deformities and give him a new identity.

Will Johnny`s new look give him the fresh start he needs and will he ever be able to rid himself of the desire for revenge on the people who killed his best friend?

Video

The picture is of mixed quality depending on what time of day it is. The scenes shot in daylight come across as very sharp and clean with natural colours. When the film moves into the night everything changes. The sharp details visible during the daytime scenes simply get lost in areas of solid black making it tricky to watch at times.

Audio

The Dolby Digital stereo 2.0 soundtrack is of reasonable quality. There are times when the surround channel is used to good effect however these are balanced by occasions where the surround channel comes across as over synthesised and artificial.

Overall the soundtrack is adequate.

Features

A trailer, why bother?

Conclusion

This move boasts an impressive cast ( Mickey Rourke, Forest Whitaker, Lance Henriksen, Ellen Barkin and Morgan Freeman all playing key roles) however even the talents of these people cannot save it from being distinctly average.

The emotions of the main character are never truly explored. Whether this is due to the script or Mickey Rourke`s acting is hard to say as he spends allot of the more poignant moments simply looking vacant.

The main problem seems to be that it can`t decide what sort of movie it wants to be. It tries to cover many different aspects and as such ends up failing. The film makers don`t commit to any one part of the tale and thusly the whole experience is somewhat diluted and weak. There are some good potential issues which could have been dealt with here but not one of them are really tackled head on. I would love to have seen far more being made of the way society by and large fails to look beneath a person`s exterior but instead this is brushed over.

So overall an average DVD and an average movie, rent if you must but definitely not a keeper.