Red-Barracuda A compulsive gambler returns to the town he fled years before on account of bad debts. He quickly hooks back up with an old flame who is now married to a local hood. Before long he finds himself involved in organising a big money heist.I get the impression from other reviews that this Texas neo-noir from director Steven Soderbergh doesn't have too good of a reputation. This is something that surprises me somewhat and is a sentiment I cannot get behind. For me, this was a well-directed and well-acted crime film with an interesting structure and a bit of style to burn. Its story is told in three different time-lines that dovetail for the final section. The flash-backs and flash-forwards are effective in creating a tension that ensures we want to find out how everything fits together. Not only this it always looks interesting too, with unusual framing and stylized lighting often used. This emphasis on the visual works well for the neo-noir sub-genre and here is no different. Peter Gallagher is very good in the lead role, in a character that isn't terribly sympathetic, while Alison Elliott was equally good as the woman he reacquaints himself with. Pleasingly, the film ends with a finale that neatly wraps things up in a satisfying and unexpected way.

dallasryan One of Peter Gallagher's best, and a very good Soderbergh film overall. Also William Fichtner is always fun to watch. Gallagher plays a role that is indeed a very complicated one, as the person he is playing is a very deeply troubled soul with a lot of self loathing shame that he condemns on himself and which his character's brother condemns on him as well. Gallagher's character leaves a woman he loved years before, for no rhyme or reason(actually a little bit of a reason, but not enough to constitute one leaving), and his character vanishes out of her life for many years before returning back into her life again. Gallagher plays the character with such likability that you feel for his character's confusion of himself, and his nomadic ways of being able to just leave on people he cares about, just like that. You feel for his character in being the black sheep in his brother's eyes and his indifferent ways. A Self Study of a person's confusion and their search for self love as well as love from another person and also walking the line with themselves between right and wrong and trying to make amends for past wrongs. Worth a watch for the deep, precise performance of Peter Gallagher.

Lucien Lessard A charming drifter by the name of Michael (Peter Gallagher) returns home for his mother's wedding. But he decides to see his ex-girlfriend (Allison Elliot), which his feelings for her are unchanged. But his ex-girlfriend is seeing a small time gangster (William Fichtner), which he doesn't like it at all. Michael's stepfather (Paul Dooley) offers him a job to be a security guard to transport money to various banks. He decides to risk his job by making a deal with the gangster, if he could get his ex-love back in his life. But his passion turns into obsession and no one can be trusted.Directed by Steven Soderbergh (Kafka, King of the Hill, Out of Sight) made an intriguing, suspense thriller with a sharp performance by Gallagher. Soderbergh has an eye for visual style and some suspenseful moments. Since half of the movie is told in flashbacks. It was very little seen by the public and film critics, when it was release in 1995. Like some of Soderbergh's earlier work, "The Underneath" has a small loyal cult following.The DVD has an good non-anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer and an fine Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. The DVD's special features are the original theatrical trailer, cast & filmmakers' bios and more. Fans of Soderbergh's work will enjoy this movie best and especially those who enjoy movies with flashbacks. But the film does takes its time to know the characters, it keeps the viewer interested and it is certainly worth a look. The director also co-wrote the script in a different name. Panavision. (*** 1/2 out of *****).

bob the moo Ex-con and recovered gambler Michael Chambers returns home to Austin, Texas to attend his mother's wedding. He looks up the girlfriend that he walked out on many years prior, immediately causing problems with her criminally-inclined boyfriend. When his new father-in-law helps him get set up with a job driving an armoured car, things begin to look better for Michael but his desire for Rachel remains, sparking a cycle of events that run out of his control.Working almost like a test bed for things he would do better later on, this film allowed the director to try various techniques and styles that didn't really work for him in this case. The plot unfolds in three different time periods are the same time, we are helped out by Michael having a beard in the earliest time periods. The point of these was to create a history for the characters and help keep the interest as we went by not knowing the past until it is significant (a trick he did again in Out of Sight). However here the characters are painted so flat that it's hard to notice any difference in them between the time periods. Also the actual past is quite straightforward and sheds light on nothing of real significance. This stalls the film for the majority and it only really gets going again towards the end, but even that is killed by a series of little twists that culminate in a final shot that simply doesn't make sense and was clearly a cheap way of ending the film on a dramatic note.The direction is OK but perhaps a little heavy on the style. Constant shots through coloured glass makes it all look very clever but it doesn't add anything. At first I thought it was to help distinguish time period (all the armoured car stuff looks green) but then I realised he was just doing it when the mood took him. In Traffic, the emphasis on colour worked well between the three stories but here it just feels like a director trying too hard.Gallagher is an OK actor but can't do much here to shed light on the character. We know that Michael is blessed with poor judgement but beyond that he is a mystery that even Gallagher seems incapable of getting in touch with. Elliot is pretty but also a flat character. The support cast is interesting as it has plenty of well known faces including Fichtner, Dooley, Baker and Shue but really the weakness at the top is the problem here.Overall this is watchable despite it being a little slow and too stylish for it's own good. The overriding impression I got from watching it was that Soderbergh was trying out some ideas to work out what the weaknesses with them were. Add to this a quite straightforward story that is told in three timelines for no discernible benefit to the film and then a cheap series of dramatics when all else fails and you've got a film that doesn't tend to get mentioned in the same breath as his more recent hits.