One In The Chamber

HONOR AMONGST KILLERS
These 2 men together baffled me for a minute but after seeing it it was great and off the wall. There is honor amongst thieves, and even killers. This was done with class. Many may sleep on it but it was worth every minute beginning to end

FISTFUL OF EUROS
Ray Carver (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is an assassin for hire in Prague. He is hired by crime boss Mikhail Suverov (Andrew Bicknell) to kill the Tavanian family over a territory issue...it's all about respect. One of the Tavanians survive to the dismay of the Surverov family. This ignites a war. Surverov then hires Aleksey Andreev (Dolph Lundgren) to finish the job. Meanwhile in an ironic twist the Tavanian's hire Carver to kill his former boss the Surverov family.

The two assassins have different approaches. Ray Carver likes to keep a low profile while Aleksey wears Hawaiian shirts and usually comes in the front door. Carver works out, reads the Bible, kills people for hire, and stalks a girl. Dolph Lundgren gives the film some attempted comedy. During the opening credits, they opt to change the fonts and make the "N"s backwards. I thought it might somehow relate to the film, but it wasn't that deep.

Both these stars have done better films and Cuba has certainly done...

Underrated
One in the Chamber is an underrated action-thriller by director William Kaufman. Kaufman is one of a handful of DTV directors to really watch. (The others being Isaac Florentine, Roel Reine, and John Hyams.). Kaufman's action scenes
are always handled carefully, not sloppily, and with a definite, obvious respect for the days when audiences were presented with hand to hand fight scenes that were like mini martial arts demonstrations rather than quickly cut illusions of combat. Kaufman really seems to have respect for the genre. It seems that these days, with very few exceptions, the place to find a good action movie is in the DTV market and Kaufman is definitely one of the directors to watch. Of course, having Dolph Lundgren give one of his more memorable performances in recent years helps a bit too. Let's hope this film is successful enough to call for a sequel.

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