Break and Life Struggles: A Movie Review

Director/writer: Marc Clebanoff.

Full Force Films is one of three production companies that brought Break to audiences in 2009. The film is action and thriller rolled in one with some genre favourites starring. Michael Madsen, David Carridine, Chad Everett and Brooke Lewis connive, backstab, and seduce each other through much of the conflicted film. The message is simple; love hurts, but love is also worth fighting for.

Characters Frank (Frank Krueger) and The Man (Everett) square off for the beautiful Woman (Sarah Thompson). A threesome is one too many and several characters learn this the hard way. Dark dealings in the underworld of hitmen and murder culminates in several physical fights that prove women are not always the weaker sex.

The ensemble cast gets bits and pieces of screen time, but centrally Break is a film about the lovers Frank and The Woman. Madsen offers his usual tough guy routine and plays both sides of a worn fence. Carradine plays an appropriate sexual deviant who enjoys a little sexual voyeurism. This is very ironic. Everett plays a disturbed, aging kingpin who wants to be buried with his greatest prize, the beautiful Woman. Lewis simply gets introduced and then outroduced after insulting the hero in the film. Lewis gets the bitch role right. All of these recognizable faces make sure the acting is above average at the very least. Sometimes the acting excels when the writing is right, but characters Frank and The Woman stay in most of the scenes.

Love is a difficult road that some of us follow through suffering and pain to find truth. Frank encounters karate kicks, assassination attempts, and mysterious killers to hold onto love for a brief moment. In doing so he learns that he is the murderer of his lover's father. The Woman learns that her life is just a step away from ending at the hands of The Man. Many other truths are revealed in this ninety minute endeavour. Is Frank and The Woman's love eternal, or just another pitstop for another potential threesome?

The ending says the former and Break shows viewers that passion is the only feeling worth risking everything for. This most painful of emotions delivers us to the greatest of heights and the lowest of lows. Each of these levels of feeling are displayed in Break in various scenes. If you have a need for a simple action thriller that goes the extra mile to entertain, then Break is for you. As The Woman says: "break free," for a moment and enjoy this film.



Acting/believability/interpretation: 7.
Conclusion/theme/pacing: 6.5 (some slow pacing early on, takes awhile to find its pacing).
Plot/story/unity: 7 (no problems here).
Social message/author's statement: 6 (the central theme has already been discussed, some additional themes could have been introduced, life is complex).

Overall: 6.6 out of 10.

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Posted in: 2010,acting,action,brooke lewis,crime drama,drama,Michael Madsen,movie poster,movie review,plot,thriller