What this above-average boilerplate crime thriller lacks in imagination, it makes up for with good casting and grit. Willem DeFoe and Matt Dillon are unlikely cohorts in "The Boondock Saints" producer Chris Brinker's "Bad Country," costarring Tom Berenger, Neal McDonough, Kevin Chapman, Amy Smart, and Bill Duke. The male-dominated action takes place in rural Louisiana during the 1980s as hard boiled Baton Rouge Plice Detective Bud Carter (Willem Dafoe of "Streets of Fire") nabs career criminal Jesse Weiland (Matt Dillon of "Drugstore Cowboy"), and they cut a deal with Federal authorities so the imprisoned felon can turn state's evidence. Tom Berenger is cast as unsavory, well-heeled businessmen Lutin Adams, with an urbane, well-dressed attorney Daniel Kiersey (Neal McDonough of "Walking Tall") running his affairs. Lutin bails Jesse out of jail and maintains him on his payroll, while Jesse informs on him. Things go south on a deal with Middle Eastern gunmen, and Jesse has to blast his way out of rendezvous. He learns from Lutin that Lutin wants Bud terminated with extreme prejudice. Jesse lets Bud in on the orders to kill him, and they try to clear out when Lutin's henchmen show up in force to shoot it out with them. Jesse has a couple of fingers blown off, but our heroes survive the encounter. Not long after things really go bad for Jesse. He escapes from the hospital where he is being treated to hunt down Catfish (John Edward Lee of "Terminator Genisys") while Bud corners Kiersey and smashes his wrists in a car trunk. Everything ends in the French Quarter with Jesse shooting it out with Lutin's bodyguards. Not surprisingly, Bud shows up and the body count rises. The fight between Berenger and Dillon is pretty tough stuff. Performances are of the no-nonsense variety. Bill Dukes plays a Federal attorney. Some of the dialogue is good, and there is enough blood-splattered action and gunplay to make "Bad Country" worth watching for crime thriller aficionados. Amy Smart and Kevin Chapman are wasted. The quote from Saint Augustine: "Hate is like drinking poison and hoping the other guys dies" is pretty cool. Efficiently made and lensed with some action staged in New Orleans, "Bad Country" is atmospheric, grim, andworkman-like enough to be worth watching at least once.
Review of Bad Country
