ASSASSINS TALE is a cheap-as-anything crime story involving a trio of lead characters who are mixed up in the criminal underworld. It's one of those inconsequential low budget stories that opens with a graphic murder and goes from there. The video cover missells it as an action thriller but it's more of a talky character drama with a few violent moments. The whole thing feels tired and long-winded, let down by sub-par scripting which makes the characters themselves a real bore.

Carlos Manfeddy dies and leaves his crime empire to his son and an illegitimate son. Carlos jr. hires Jason (Rob Roy Fitzgerald) to have his people perform the hit on the illegitimate son to insure he doesn't have to share anything. The problem is no one exactly what he looks like, but there are pictures of several people who might be his son. The man carrying the pictures gets killed by Woody's (Kaiwi Lyman) assassins who takes the pics and hunts down the illegitimate son on his own for the money. Of course there is a lot of double cross and plot twists.

On the surface the plot isn't that great. The film reminded me of a low budget poorly scripted "Smokin' Aces" without the over the top characters and humor. On the plus side, was the sound track which featured a few good original songs. The film had some good scenes, but like the acting, it was spotty. This is a low budget, low action crime movie that attempts to deal with characters coming to terms with their occupation, i.e. killing innocent strangers may be wrong.

It was okay as a lower tier rental. Writer/director Arthur Louis Fuller doesn't appear to have reached his potential.

Parental Guide: F-bomb, sex, token nude scene.

The discussions between Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta in Pulp Fiction started up this genre, with assassins that speak a lot about their feelings or thoughts. Those dialogues taken separately are better than most movies in this niche in their entirety and, unfortunately, Assassin's Tale falls into the same category.

The problem is that killers talking about themselves is just cutting corners on some real film making, where one would construct a story to develop the characters. Instead we are regaled with verbal diarrhea that means nothing and reveals nothing and just takes up from the viewer's time.

In this particular group of films, this one is not actually that bad. The beginning, at least, starts up very smartly, with lines that just feel original and surprising. I kept imagining what the characters would say and they would do something really different, but also real feeling. It didn't last though, as a big part of the movie was hijacked by the usual tough guy underworld and psychopathic wise guys and that sort of crap that completely balanced out the good starting bits.

And then there was the end, fragmented, pointless, unrealistic and lame. The point of a low budget movie is to show a good idea or the effort one puts into the script or acting, not to rehash an already obsolete recipe.

While I am sure the film makers meant well, I am sorry, but I cannot recommend this movie for any reason.