Review: STILETTO (2009)
STILETTO (2009)
Director: Nick Vallelonga
Cast: Stana Katic, Dominique Swain, Tom Berenger, Michael Biehn, William Forsythe, D.B. Sweeney, Tom Sizemore, James Russo, Paul Sloane
It’s about time somebody took on the Greek Mafia, Zeusdammit, and Stiletto proves to be just the rock-’em-sock-’em direct-to-video revenge flick to do it.
Tall drink of Canuck loveliness Stana Katic (alternately purring and wailing i
n a luscious Russian accent) hunts down and slaughters a 21st-century B-movie dream team of grizzled hard-asses (Berenger! Biehn! Bill Forsythe!) as payback for what they did to her kid sister. You know those baklavah-breath types and their famous white-slave trade.
Aside from the great knockout vs. knockabout-guy cast, the violence is splattery good, and the plot barrels along at an agreeable clip. You want Mediterranean mobster blood (and who doesn’t)? You got it.
Stiletto also includes stick-fighting geishas, Nazi skinheads, and that adorable case study in gangly, overgrown gawkiness, Dominique Swain.
Plus there’s Tom Sizemore snorting narcotics, groping prostitutes, and rolling with thugs of color. It’s safe to assume that’s documentary footage.
On top of that, there’s the coincidental casting of R.A. Mihailoff and Andrew Bryniarski, two actors who portayed Leatherface in two different Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies.
It all adds up to a perfect recipe to accompany pizza on a DVD Friday night.
In addition, Stiletto is destined to figure as an absolute godsend to insomniac channel surfers for, let us hope, years of wee-hour cable programming to come.
