Road of No Return (2009)

Follows the final nine days in the lives of four hit men who are secretly brought together in a covert operation to fight the nation's drug trafficking epidemic. Underneath their ... See full summary »

Director:

Parviz Saghizadeh

Writer:

Parviz Saghizadeh

Stars:

Michael Madsen, David Carradine, Michael Blain-Rozgay

Cast

Credited cast:
Michael Madsen	...	J. Marcone
David Carradine	...	Mr. Hover
Michael Blain-Rozgay	...	Foreigner
Ernest Anthony	...	Blacky
Shane Woodson	...	Whitey
Carlie Westerman	...	Katie
Sandy Kanan	...	Mom
Michelle Capra	...	Becky
Monty Jordan	...	DEA Agent # 1
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jose Andrews	...	Indian
Boo Arnold	...	DEA Agent # 7
Kabrina Baldridge	...	Little Girl in Orphanage
Dave Bermudez	...	Amer - Mexican Border
Kent R. Besinque	...	Bartender
Scott Bogatz	...	Drug Trafficker in Black Jacket - Canyon Road

Storyline

Follows the final nine days in the lives of four hit men who are secretly brought together in a covert operation to fight the nation's drug trafficking epidemic. Underneath their coldhearted facades, the hit men are lost souls in search of redemption. On this mission they'll confront their own demons.

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Plot Keywords:

drugs | drug trafficking | covert operation | hitman | 

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Genres:

Action | Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 February 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ahonnan nincs visszatérés

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

First Pictures, Frames In Motion, Zero Compression

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

In Michael Madsen's first scene talking to a Hitman, he has a Cigar and you see it change from long then to short in his mouth, and when he puts it back in the ashtray it is longer again.

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Quotes

J. Marcone: Once upon a time there was a little boy, his father, made him some wings outta feathers and wax. He told the young man not ta, fly to close to the sun, or else the wax would melt, but, the young man in his arrogance, ignored the warnings of his father, and he flew too close to the sun. The wax melted and he fell to his death.
Foreigner: So, you are the father? And we are the son?
J. Marcone: Yes but, I am also the sun.

User Reviews

A Peculiar Disappointment

Where to begin, there were so many problems with this movie.

The written dialogue was often weak filler and the delivery was frequently unnatural. Almost as if the moments where the actors were exploring how to deliver the dialogue were captured and used to create the movie. At times there was dialogue when it wasn't needed.

Generally, a movie is good if the audience is not "aware" they are watching a movie. Thus when something in a movie forces the viewer to stop watching and think, it isn't a good movie. At one point in this film a character commits an action they regret right away, yet their dialogue states they didn't know *something* before they committed the action. However the character should still not know the *something*, yet they are lamenting what they have done because of the effect on *something*, which is unknown to them. Like a chunk of the movie is missing to explain what was going on, but actually it was just poorly written, in my estimation.

The big name actors both seem to be having a bad day on set, for almost the entire film. Michael Madsen & David Carradine are so very good in Kill Bill (1&2) yet somehow it seems they made no effort in Road of No Return. It is as if we are watching two actors who just happen to look like Madsen and Carradine, but lack their talent. Maybe they just could not get into their roles, perhaps the characters felt too similar to the characters they portrayed in Kill Bill.

Over acting and under acting were not the only weaknesses. The framing, lighting and dead end quality of some scenes creates an ongoing internal dialogue in the viewer. The voice in the mind of the audience is often saying things like: "Why did they shoot that scene in such a strange way?" "What was the value of that line of dialogue?" "Is this supposed to be a comedy?" "Why are the only good scenes the ones where someone is talking to the child actor?" "Is this whole movie a bizarre parody of a movie?" "Am I on candid camera as I watch this movie?"

The special effects are so lame the are almost non existent. With so much gun fire I was left wondering why there were so many poorly produced effects connected to gun fire? Less gun fire done well would have been a better idea.

Conceptually, the story line worked well, it was just the execution that sucked. (pardon the pun) In fact, the only reason I kept watching was to see how the story line played out.

Were the actors that bad or was there something else going on which caused this production to turn into card board cut out characters? I'm still not certain, but it felt like something was restricting all of the performances as they could not have all been uniformly bad actors.

In the end, this is a great movie for use in learning how NOT to shoot a movie.