SOUTHERN FURY is a routine crime thriller with various characters, none of whom are that interesting. The big names seem to be slumming it here while the lead, Adrian Grenier, is singularly disappointing and lacking the power and gravitas you'd expect from the role. I found the childhood flashback sequences more interesting than the modern-day gangster cliches. The story has Nicolas Cage going over the top (as usual) playing a sadistic crime boss with a very bad wig. He kidnaps Johnathon Schaech's character (Schaech is the best actor in the whole thing),leading his brother (played by Grenier) on a revenge mission. John Cusack shows up as a shady mentor character helping out and looks like he's trying to go incognito for the most part, and you can't really blame him for that.

Mike (Johnathon Schaech) and JP (Adrian Grenier) are brothers. Growing up Mike looked after JP. As adults, Mike has a messed up life while JP has a successful life in construction. Mike is mixed with Eddie King (Nicolas Cage) a crime boss with a bad rug. Eddie devises a plan to extract money from JP. John Cusack plays undercover cop Sal.

The drama and dialogue was poor. I am not sure why Cage wore such a terrible rug (see DVD cover) and I couldn't figure out that fake accent that varied from scene to scene. Cusack was only marginally credible. The whole plot reeked. What was good was the slow motion gun shot wounds near the end of the film. Worth passing up unless you really have to see a slow motion shot of a bullet exiting a cheek.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity...why did the club have "GIRLS" on the side when there were none in it?

Rivers of Blood Flowing in the Slowest of Motion Resulting in a High-Def Deluge of Jaw-Dropping, Gonzo, Grind-House Movie-Making.

Unrestrained Ultra-Nuttiness from Nicolas Cage, Dressing and Made-Up like a Clown and giving a Freak-a-Zoid On-Screen "Performance" that cannot be Ignored.

John Cusack, in one of His Patented Baseball Cap, Vape-Pipe Outings. It's all Whispering and Dreamlike, Detached from the Proceedings afraid to "Dip-a-Toe" for Fear of an Infectious Cesspool.

The Two Brothers that the Story Wanders Around are Adrian Grenier and Johnathon Schaech. They Barely Register and are as White-Bread and Generic as Cage and Cusack are Wacky-Packs.

The Allure in "Arsenal" is the Carnival Visuals and the Study of Bloody Body Parts, Crunching Bones, and Side-Show Antics.

Worth a Watch for its Excesses and Peep-Show Salaciousness. All Involved seem to be Proud of its Pandering.