Review of Hammett

This is an A storyline sabotaged by a C script and acted out by B actors (with the exception of Boyle and Henner) and directed by a B director. The music by Barry is very good, but not enough to hold up the film, even with pleasing cameos by Elisha Cook Jr, Sylvia Sydney and Samuel Fuller. THe lighting is exceptional, as is the production design, however, we cannot get around the poor casting (especially for the lead of Hammett, and the cartoonish stylization of several scenes. A few worked, but many more did not. The cops with the porno film was very funny, as were one or two of Hammett's comments. But the majority of lines sounded like they were hackneyed.

I expected so much more with the Coppola name attached to the film. Very disappointing. Apparently, some amateur thought that satire would be more amusing than real dialogue. Wrong.