ASSAULT ON WALL STREET

Security guard Jim (Dominic Purcell) and his wife Rosie (Erin Karpluck) are very much in love and keen to start trying for a family. Unfortunately she's receiving treatment for a brain tumour and the doctors have advised her to wait until a time when they can give her the 'all clear'.

Treatment costs $300 a time, which Jim is adamant they can afford. But his wages will only stretch so far, and his credit card bills are mounting. To alleviate the stress of feeling guilty about the cost of her health, Jim shields Rosie from their financial woes as best he can.

However, the situation starts to spiral further out of control when he contacts his broker in a bid to access money he’s invested in stocks. Oops, a café meeting with said broker – a typically arrogant shit – reveals that the money was invested badly and, now that the market has crashed, it’s all gone. Even worse, Jim has been left $60,000.00 in the red as a result.

Understandably, Jim is furious and wants to hold someone to account. He visits Patterson (Eric Roberts), a solicitor, for advice. Although Patterson agrees that the broker’s actions sound less than legal, he refuses to represent Jim until a down-payment of $10,000.00 can be made. Luckily Jim’s colleague and best mate Sean (Edward Furlong) has some savings which he happily offers forward to help.

Even so, Jim is fighting a losing battle as the hospitals, banks, lawyers and local senators all meet his predicament with a wall of apathy. By the time Jim eventually snaps and decides to take to Wall Street with a gun and a mind to redress the balance, the audience can hardly blame him for what comes next …

When this screener disc first popped through my letterbox I had no idea what the film was, and the title struck me as being totally uninspiring. But then I began researching the film and two words instantly jumped out at me: Uwe Boll.

The much maligned German director of such brain-frying oddities as ALONE IN THE DARK and the BLOODRAYNE series, Boll is apparently as nutty off-screen as his films are: he's on record as previously challenging critics to face him in the boxing ring, and once claimed his films were funded by Nazi gold.

More recently, his films have still received terrible feedback but there is a strong possibility that this comes from those who haven't actually watched the likes of TUNNEL RATS or RAMPAGE, or are simply fixated by now on maintaining that Boll is "the worst director in the world". In truth, while his later works such as TUNNEL RATS, STOIC and SEED do still have their flaws, they also show a marked growth in Boll's style and storytelling prowess.

That trend continues with ASSAULT ON WALL STREET.

Boll’s script is tighter than usual, feeling like he’s reined in his preferred method of allowing his actors to improvise most scenes. Here, the flow is very controlled, the dialogue snappy and true. It helps, of course, that a solid cast – which also includes the likes of Michael Pare, Keith David and John Heard – are all on fine form.

The film is well-shot: handheld camerawork stylishly captures the raw urgency of Wall Street’s daily hustle and bustle, as well as centring intensely on Jim’s escalating frustration. The editing remembers to slow it down just enough to appreciate the warmer early scenes between Jim and Rosie, while the more explosive sequences in the latter half are well staged and convincing.

The biggest flaw that the film has is that the set-up is a little too considered, resulting in it being a good hour into proceedings before Jim really snaps. By then there’s only 30 minutes left. Events consequently feel a tad rushed at the end.

There’s also a slight ‘TV movie’ feel to the production, possibly down to this being a low budget production. The film certainly looks good (sound design is canny too), but it’s slick in a US TV drama manner rather than cinema.

ASSAULT ON WALL STREET comes to UK DVD courtesy of those fine chaps at Metrodome. They present the film to us uncut and in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio, enhancing the picture for 16x9 TVs. Colours are strong and natural, definition is crisp and detail is acute throughout. There's a very vivid quality to the picture, even when taking into consideration the shaky camerawork.

Equally, the English 2.0 audio offered to us is a satisfyingly clean and consistent proposition.

The disc opens to a static main menu page. From there, a static scene selection menu allows access to the film via the usual 12 chapters.

There are no bonus features on offer but Metrodome's disc is defaulted to open with trailers for JACKPOT, SIBERIAN EDUCATION and ST GEORGE'S DAY. It's a shame there's no commentary track or interviews, as Boll is always good value on such outings.

Uwe Boll haters will hate this before they even see it. Of course. The more open minded viewer may be surprised to learn that ASSAULT ON WALL STREET is actually a very well-made slow-burner with fine performances and a pertinent message at its heart.

By Stuart Willis