Killshot
(Friday, Jan. 23, 2009)
Back so soon, Mickey Rourke? This time, he's not called "The Ram" but "The Blackbird," and his hair is unbleached and pulled back in a ponytail. His performance, however, is of similar captivation, thanks again to his weary, expressive face that can't help but fascinate with every cheek pulsation. He's a killer that adheres to a set of rules (mostly twisted), and he's made a major discovery — witness protection program be damned: the man-and-wife couple (Diane Lane and Thomas Jane) that inked him and jailed him as the Bad Guy. Some suspension of reality ensues, but Rourke's performance, along with his psycho cohort Joseph Gordon-Levitt's, makes it tolerable. The film, directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) and based on Elmore Leonard's novel, endured an arduous journey to theater release (production first began in 2005), but all that trial and error was for the better; otherwise, we would've had to deal with an annoying performance from Johnny Knoxville.YESTERDAY'S DO-IT: Burn Notice picks up where the bomb went off!