Once Upon a Time in Venice: Blu-Ray Review

Arriving this week on DVD and Blu-ray is action-comedy “Once Upon a Time in Venice”.  It’s interesting to see the direction Bruce Willis’ career has gone over the past decade.  I never thought the “Die Hard” star would be churning out direct-to-VOD fare like this. It doesn’t help when you agree to star in a film written by the guys who wrote one of your worst films, “Copout”. In all honesty, “Venice” isn’t as bad as “Copout”. It also has Jason Momoa and John Goodman in supporting roles which elevates things a tad.

Writer Mark Cullen makes his feature film directorial debut here and it’s not an impressive one.  Set mostly in Venice, California, Detective Steve Ford (Willis) is not having a good day.  When his beloved dog is stolen by a local drug lord named Spyder (Momoa), he is forced to do a series of odd jobs in order to make a trade for the pooch.  Needless-to-say, none of the jobs go as smooth as he hoped and Steve wind’s up bringing his best friend Dave (Goodman) along for backup. Momoa is actually funny here, but Goodman is absolutely wasted in the role. He genuinely looks bored.

Unfortunately “Venice” is just not a good film, and if Willis isn’t able to get himself some good material to work with soon, he will be stuck starring in these forgettable flicks.

By: Marc Ferman