No Luck This Time
Lucky (Wesley Snipes) is anything but lucky and after leading a life of crime decides he wants to go straight because he has found the love of a good woman. And he is doing okay until an old friend tracks him down and convinces him to help out on a drug deal as his name still holds some power in the city. But things go bad and finds himself drawn back in to a life of crime, on the run accompanied by a stripper and dealing with some serial killers.
"Hard Luck" is a movie with aspirations, it is aiming high to be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of "Pulp Fiction" but the only time "Hard Luck" and "Pulp Fiction" would be mentioned together is in conjunction with wannabee. You see alongside the story of Lucky "Hard Luck" has other stories such as one surrounding Cas played by Cybill Shepherd and all these side stories eventually interweave with the main storyline which is Lucky's. You feel like you should applaud actor and director Mario Van Peebles for trying to make something with edge and style even though the final product doesn't quite do it.
And the reason why "Hard Luck" doesn't work can be summed up by saying white guy trying to jive talk; it always sounds bad and false and unfortunately everything in "Hard Luck" feels false. Maybe that was the intention, to play things on the wrong side of real to try and be amusing but the end result only ends up annoying just like the character we meet in a strip club dressed like Tony Montana and talking gangsta. I guess some audiences will enjoy this as it has snap and it has topless women as well as plenty of people who talk like they shouldn't but it wasn't for me.
The saddest thing is that if you were attracted to watch "Hard Luck" because of Wesley Snipes and Mario Van Peebles previous movies such as "New Jack City" you are going to be bored senseless. Not only does "Hard Luck" lack everything which made that movie good but Snipes looks like he can't be bothered with this movie, doing the bare minimum, delivering the stares for the camera but nothing else.
What this all boils down to is that "Hard Luck" really didn't do it for me and found it hard work from start to finish although I admire Mario Van Peebles for trying to make something with an edge.
