Own the rights?
Although this film comes onto its audience like an extended beer commercial and breeds initial suspicion that it may be a shot-for-shot remake of 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels', ultimately it's not too bad. The characters might be the broadest stereotypes on paper (there's even a whore with a heart of gold) but the actors flesh them out with enough of their own charm, idiosyncrasies (and outright sex appeal) to make the roles seem lived in. The performances are universally good (although Kessel's and Nordhaus' stand out most), but the thinness of the material shows through in some places (like the lack of distinction among the personalities of the three central mates).Like a lot of film-makers these days, 'Stickmen''s came to features though advertising, and this leaves obvious and continual marks on the film's visual style. There's a lot of rapid cutting and camera motion - general ad-industry tricksiness. It shows also in the care they've taken with surface detail and lighting; like 'Lock Stock...', 'Stickmen' is an exercise in imbuing a fairly humdrum urban locale with an impossibly scungy hipness. Its Wellington is a down-at-heel props-fest of found 70s-kitsch art objects. While there might not ever be another really good New Zealand film (it often seems like the Right has killed off the arts-sector here, except as an adjunct of Marketing), 'Stickmen' is OK. It looks good, and it functions as entertainment, unlike say, 'Via Satellite'. It's a pity it couldn't have been more than just a story about some guys, some chicks, and a game of pool.
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