Betrayal

PLOT:

He tried to get out but they just pulled him right back in. That is when Vaz (played by Jack Topalian) gets pulled back into the mobster world that he thought he had left behind to become an honest businessman. Vaz is forced to go back to his past life when he learns of his son Michael (played by Vaz Andreas) getting accused of killing a Russian gangster. What he don't know though is that with the death of the gangster, a mob war is about to break out and it's being lead by Vincent (played by Gev Kalian). It's a gang war for control of the streets and Vaz is now caught in the middle as he tries to save the life of his son without losing everything that he has worked to gain after leaving the gangster lifestyle.

 

BETRAYAL:

What you don't see in that summary of the plot above is that Eric Roberts is also in this movie. Looking at the DVD case you will see the image of him on the front, you will see that he gets his name listed first, and is also given a picture on the back of the case. What you won't be told on the same case is that he really don't have much of anything to do in this movie. The way it seems to me is that this movie had a meager budget but instead of spending the money on making the action and locations better they spent most of the money to get the use of Eric Roberts. With his name people will think this movie might have something going for it, after all he is a well known actor that has been in the business for awhile. Though was it worth it having him in it when he's really not in it enough to make any real difference to how the plot of the story turns out? I don't think so.

This movie was exactly what I thought it was going to be, lame with overacting that isn't that good to begin with. If you go into this movie expecting little in the way of an interesting plot, good acting, and being entertained, then you will be fine. About the only good thing this movie has going for it is that the plot could have been interesting if it was developed right. It's nothing new in the way of ideas, that's why I used the phrase of trying to get out but getting pulled back in. Having the main character being a guy who got out of the mob life but gets put into a situation that has him back in the mob life, yeah, used and abused. Still, it's a plot that that can work if it is done correctly it's just that Betrayal didn't use the plot correctly.

Here's the biggest problem with this movie, editing. It's horrible editing with how the sequences jump around. Another technique that has been made popular but wasn't used efficiently where instead of giving a story that is mysterious and interesting we are given a movie that don't have any real cohesion and is a bit confusing at times. Piling up with the bad acting, the horrible editing, there's the fact that the characters just seem to be there where we should know who they are. I get the general idea of some of the characters, like Vaz, but the thing is it is just a general idea of who this guy is. It's like when you are watching the news where they are talking about a suspect the cops are looking for and the description they give goes something like this, male, between 5 foot and 6 foot 5, weighs between 130 to 240 pounds, between 25 and 45 years old, wearing a dark colored hoodie. Uh, ok so they are looking for a guy that could be any one of hundreds of millions of guys. Well, that's how these characters, they could be anyone with no real description other than they are characters. Betrayal just is not interesting or entertaining, the story is a lame duck, and any points that could be good is buried under the bad.