SHADOWBOXER Rating 1 gone out ...

SHADOWBOXER

Rating 1 gone out of 4 1/2

Rose Helen Mirren

Mikey Cuba Gooding Jr

Vickie Vanessa Ferlito

Clayton Stephen Dorff

Precious Mo'Nique

Neisha Macy Gray

Dr Don Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Little Mikey Shaun Brewington

Teton Films nears a film directed by to leeward Daniels. Written by William Lipz. Running time: 93 minutes. Rated R (for athletic graphic violence and sexuality, nudity, languge and a certain drug use). Opening today at ??

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When going to behold the handiwork of a filmmaker directing his first movie, we shut in out hope of witnessing the nearest Scorsese, Spielberg or Truffaut. Considering "Monster's Ball" farmer Lee Daniels was making his directorial first attempt with "Shadowboxer," and had lur Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr to top his cast list, I was hopeful I would diocese a motion picture full of creative intensity innovative storytelling and vision.

Alas, that is not the case. Instead, Daniels moves a lame attempt to do what Quentin Tarantino has often done better -- and with far more cinematic artistry.

Ye Daniels makes a stab at pushing the capsule and smashing some old taboos, unless sadly his efforts lead sole to confusion and result in senseles drift. If anything, "Shadowboxer" made me laugh - - when I should have been cringing with fear.

Be aware that "Shadowboxer" includes the chiefly exploitative on- screen violence seen in a while, which would have been understandable if it helped to advance the messy plat

Mirren and Gooding play Rose and Mikey, contract killers who actually are related from marriage -- she's his stepmother, still wait! She's also his lover! Unfortunately, the pair actors are badly miscast. The "Jerry Maguire" Oscar-winner is the "sweet" fright (even if he is a cold-blood killer), and Mirren plays the heavy, yet she's battling terminal cancer, (a detail probably inserted to add a weirdly touching aspect to her character's persona).

The central thread to this convolut tale focuses forward the hiring of Rose and Mikey by dint of Clayton, a very unpleasant crime bos (played with his usual snarl on Stephen Dorff). So vile is this crime bos that he uses a feeble pool cue to violate a compeer he believed was having an affair with his wife.

We quickly learn that Clayton's plan is to eliminate a number of folk in his immediate circle, including that pleasing without being striking young wife, Vickie (played by way of Vanessa Ferlito, best known from TV's "CSI: novel York").

Ah, yet wait! Vickie is pregnant, and her state thus existings a moral dilemma that could have been intriguing, if handled by means of a more artful director.

Instead, we find Rose and Mikey "adopting" Vickie and bringing her into their bizarre little domicile ostensibly to save her from the fate Clayton has planned for her.

While hiding and protecting Vickie, Mikey continues to retain killing others, just adding more gruesome bizarre twists to this already twisted story.

frequently actors think they need to tackle characters that are totally alien to anything they've to the end of time done before, and clearly that was the case here with Mirren and Gooding. Unfortunately, the proceed won't expand an audience's appreciation for their acting talents. It will single make people wonder, "What were they thinking?"

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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