Review: Wrong Turn at Tahoe

Cuba Gooding Jr. plays an enforcer/debt collector for mid-level gangster Miguel Ferrer (whom he sees as a sort of father figure), who finds out drug dealer Frankie Tahoe wants Ferrer dead. Ferrer, being the hard-arse that he is, decides not to sit and wait to be bumped off, he decides to take Tahoe out first. Unfortunately, it seems Mr. Tahoe was a very important connection of a rival gangster, Harvey Keitel. Needless to say, Keitel is pissed and seeks retribution, sparking a war between the duo, whilst Gooding (who is still haunted by childhood memories of his drug dealing dad) is left thinking it might be best if he finds another line of work. Johnny Messner plays Gooding’s loudmouth dip-shit associate, Mike Starr is one of Keitel’s goons (it’s the only role the guy plays, aside from an occasional barroom bully), Alex Meneses is Ferrer’s unfaithful wife, and Leonor Varela is Keitel’s squeeze. Michael Sean Tighe turns up as a childhood friend of Ferrer’s, who is now a reckless drug addict and alien conspiracy theorist.

I’m not the biggest fan of Tarantino’s early work (“Reservoir Dogs” is solid, but that’s about it until “Kill Bill”, unless you count “From Dusk ‘til Dawn”), and very few of the plethora of subsequent Tarantino-wannabes have been any good. However, this 2010 direct-to-DVD crime outing from director Franck Khalfoun (director of the bland ‘psycho in a parking garage’ thriller “P2”) isn’t bad at all. Ferrer (a most underappreciated actor) gives a scene-stealing performance as a tough mid-level mobster (I would’ve liked more scenes with Ferrer and Tighe, though), and although playing a standard part, Keitel is more motivated than I’ve seen him in some films. I tend to think of Keitel as a mediocre De Niro (but with much stranger and varied script selection), which I know is sacrilege to his many fans, but here he’s pretty decent without chewing the scenery too much. Hey, at least he’s not embarrassing himself talking in hippity hop slang like in “Be Cool”.

It’s also got quite a nice, dark sense of humour, especially in an early scene or two involving Ferrer and loudmouth thug Messner, who seriously rubs Ferrer the wrong way to hilarious effect. The first scene between Ferrer and Keitel is also stellar, mixing menace and humour perfectly. I didn’t know it was going to be funny, but it is, especially early on.

 

It’s really watchable stuff (if clichéd), and almost good enough to make you forget that a slumming Cuba Gooding Jr. is not very convincingly cast as a tough, brooding enforcer-with-a-conscience. Oh, Cuba’s fine with the conscience part, and anyone who has seen him in “Gladiator” (the boxing one) knows he’s capable enough in action roles, but as an intimidating ‘break ‘ya fingaz’ type? Uh-uh. The always charismatic Cuba (who is a fine actor in the right role) gives it the old college try, but ain’t no one buying him as hired muscle, and the character needed a lot more development anyway (I wanted to know more about the non-enforcer side of his life). I kept waiting for Wesley Snipes, Ving Rhames, or Vin Diesel to show Cuba how it’s really done (Hell, throw Seagal or Van Damme a bone, they’d both be better suited to the role than Cuba).

 

Still, it’s a lot more entertaining than I was expecting, given it’s a direct-to-DVD film in the Tarantino ‘quirky crime movie’-style that is already so played out by now (And come to think of it, so is the ‘Beginning the film with a scene from later in the film that we’ll come back to’ schtick). Ferrer is really terrific here, so it’s a shame the film won’t get more widespread exposure in that sense. Certainly he gives a better class of performance than you would expect from a direct-to-DVD crime pic like this.

Really violent, borderline operatic final shootout is well-done, but I’m not sure it really belongs in what is a much smaller-scale film, otherwise. It’s almost as if the story were going along a trajectory from smart-arsey Tarantino to character-driven Scorsese and finishing at grandiose Coppola meets stylistically violent Peckinpah. It’s a bit much at the end. The screenplay is by Eddie Nickerson, his first screenplay effort.
 

Poor Cuba (he’s an Oscar winner for cryin’ out loud, something even Keitel can’t claim), I really hope he gets out of this direct-to-DVD rut. His career completely bottomed out after he made one disappointing flop or lame kiddie comedy too many (“Chill Factor”, “Snow Dogs”, “Boat Trip”, “Daddy Day Camp”), and now he and Val Kilmer (“Streets of Blood”, “Hardwired”) are joining Seagal and Van Damme in direct-to-DVD hell. Being miscast in roles like this one, won’t help Cuba much, but it sure is a better film than “Hardwired” and “The Devil’s Tomb”.

Rating: C+