The Butcher (2009)

Director:  Jesse V. Johnson

Writer:  Jesse V. Johnson

Composer:  Marcello De Francisci

Starring:  Eric Roberts, Robert Davi, Keith David, Geoffrey Lewis, Irini Bjorklund, Paul Dillon, Jerry Trimble, Michael Ironside

More info:  IMDb

Tagline:  Never gamble when you are desperate...

Plot: Merle Hench (Eric Roberts) is an enforcer for a mob outfit. He's set up to take the fall for a multi-million dollar heist of a rival mob boss. Merle's luck turns as he survives the trap and winds up with a piece of the take and the girl. He might have been content to just disappear, but the betrayal of his twenty years of loyalty snapped something inside.

My rating: 4/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Stuntman turned writer/director, Jesse V. Johnson, directed eight pictures before this one.  I'd say that's a lot.  I'm surprised because this is a REALLY long 95 minute flick.  It's so fucking slow.  The music score is mostly a slow, steady electronic beat, the kind you get when someone is on a heist and they're being super stealthy.  That makes the movie even longer.  Everything about this is so casual in its pacing that it almost feels like you're in one of those dreams where you're running but it's in slow motion and you can barely move.  I wonder why it's like this because it certainly doesn't have to be. 

The cast does an OK job.  Roberts doesn't give up the cool tough guy routine for a moment (which gets laughably old).  That slows things down since he's giving a one-note performance.  That's OK if you dig the tune but it's the combination of everything else in this that the total weighs it down.  There is a good deal of slow motion.  Scenes are too long and the ending is really stretched out.  Around an hour into this I thought it was wrapping up and I was only two-thirds in.  Ugh.  I'm trying to be positive here and I don't mean to come of like an angry guy who just says, "It sucks!" about movies and leaves it at that.  This would be an interesting project to give to people to play with the editing and the music and see how much better this could be.  I'm not saying this needs to move at a break neck speed but this picture is unnecessarily slow.