Catch .44 is the embodiment of style over substance.

The film looks great. Writer/director Aaron Harvey clearly has a good eye. If the budget is as low as he implies in the audio commentary, Harvey needs to marry his production designer and his cinematographer. A lot of the visual effects are a little clunky (think the fight sequences in Deadliest Warrior), but good for the budget (which bodes well for the future of indie film).

The acting is also very strong, which is not unexpected given a cast that includes veterans Bruce Willis, Brad Dourif, and Oscar winner Forest Whitaker. Most of the fun that can be squeezed from watching Catch .44 is seeing the actors play.

But the twisty crime thriller genre is all about story, and there just isn’t one here. Unlike The Usual Suspects and Reservoir Dogs, to which the marketing compares the film, Catch.44 doesn’t have any surprises, any secrets, or any tension. It’s mostly just people saying they are going to shoot each other and then, in fact, shooting each other.

The characters are poorly drawn and, with the possible exception of Whitaker’s confused psycho, unmemorable. Most have no arcs to speak of. The script doesn’t even keep you entertained with clever banter or intimidating tough-guy talk, another staple of the genre. The dialogue in Catch .44 is clumsy and lacking originality.

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There is very little that fan favorite actor Bruce Campbell can do that will get overwhelming disapproval from his legions of fans across the globe. Movies like My Name is Bruce, Army of Darkness, Man With the Screaming Brain, and of course any of the Spider-Man films has solidified Campbell as untouchable in the movie-watching community.

Now, he’s planning on taking that to the next stage, with an upcoming project in which he brings all of our favorite horror movie legends and throws them all in a movie together, a la The Expendables. In a recent interview with the LA Times, names like Kane Hodder and Robert Englund were thrown around, and the hairs on the backs of horror fans everywhere stood on end.

Yeah, “The Expendables,” or more like the “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” of horror. I want to get so many horror movie stars that people can’t possibly not see the movie. I want to give them other stuff to do. I want to have Kane Hodder be very particular about what he eats. I want Robert Englund to be a tough guy, like he knows tae kwon do or something.

I want to find out the hidden sides of all these people. Some will play themselves, some will play alternate characters as well. I may approach Kane Hodder to play Frankenstein. He could be Kane Hodder himself fighting himself as Frankenstein. It could be crazy. It’s a silly concocted story that we hope to do maybe in a year or so.

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Not many people are fans of Nicolas Cage. It could be that his hair is a bird, or that he has been known for many poor film choices like Wicker Man, Next, Knowing, Bangkok Dangerous, World Trade Center or Ghost Rider. The trailer for his newest film, however, doesn’t look half bad — even if it is a remake.

Bad Lieutenant is a remake of the 1992 film starring Harvey Keitel about a cop who walks the line of moral and amoral, drinking and gambling along the way. The idea may feel a bit beaten to death for anybody who watched all 6 seasons of FX’s The Shield, but director Werner Herzog is pushing through regardless.

The script was adapted (or copy-and-pasted) by a veteran of the world of police drama, William Finkelstein, who’s writing credits date all the way back to 1990 with Cop Rock. This remake also changes the settings from New York City to a post-Katrina New Orleans, which opens itself up to a series of outdated references and plot points.

Joining Cage in the remake is Val Kilmer, Eva Mendes, Jennifer Coolidge, and Brad Dourif. Catch Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans in limited theaters in November. Until then, check out the first full trailer after the jump.

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