merklekranz
"The Butcher" gets high marks for a high body count, in other words lots of bang bang, but little else. Eric Roberts is his usual dependable quirky self, and it's nice to see Robert Davi and Geoffrey Lewis getting some work. This is however a very shallow movie, with everything revolving around the ultra violent scenes. The whole film has almost zero meaning. Eric Roberts never changes his sport coat throughout the entire movie, and really the movie never changes either. It is nothing more than just another weak plotted shoot em up, with little or no character development. I say avoid unless you need to see a bunch of seldom used actors in a meaningless movie. - MERK
pulp_fiction47
I had no expectations for this movie. From the title I guessed it was a B-grade slasher flick of some kind.What I got was something completely different.The Butcher is a dark and gritty story about a man with nothing to lose, made in the style of the classic movies of the same kind in 70's.Eric Roberts is good in the title role and most of the actors do their job quite well.The action is raw and naked without being over the top and the overall feel and atmosphere is gritty and dirty.I recommend this film for people who like gangster and action movies from the 70's.7/10
Michael O'Keefe
Jesse Johnson writes and directs THE BUTCHER, a crime drama starring Eric Roberts as Merle Hench nicknamed 'The Butcher' in his younger days as a promising prize fighter. For the last twenty years, he has been a mob enforcer. His boss(Robert Dayl)figures its about time for Merle to slow down a bit, maybe retire from the business. Merle is set up to take the fall for a botched heist worth millions to a rival mob boss. The Butcher's instincts tell him something is very wrong and instead of disappearing, he decides its time to fight back in return for being put in the trap.Roberts seems to play it too cool. His character definitely has faith in himself. His love interest is played by the winsome Irina Bjorklund. In support are: Geoffrey Lewis, Paul Dillon, Jerry Trimble and Michael Ironside. Not a bad choice for a lazy day.
tcarvelo14
This is a world of granite faced crusty badass mothers! These guys aren't pretty, in fact nobody in this movie is pretty. But they are tough, and what they lack in looks they more than make up for in ferocity of action.Robert davi is fantastic as the pock marked faced lee j. cobb mob boss, he doesn't like Earl, Eric Roberts' character, but like all the people in this movie they don't give away what they're thinking or who they like, or even what side they're on, and when the chips are down and they're in trouble, they all offer to join the other team to save their bacon, anyway. The only character with any real shred of discernible decency at all is Eric Roberts, and he is at the losing end of a run of seriously bad luck - see the movie.This film was constructed strangely, it was really slow, and it bugged me a bit, then I realized I really enjoyed the slow build up, because, brother let me tell you, when this movie goes bang, it takes large gruesome fragments of the san fernando valley with it. In glorious old school no CG style. The guns are real and sound real, the guts and splatter seems gruesomely real, too.I don't normally write on these boards, most people with the time to write don't share my opinion anyway. But a complete miscreant made a comment about the guns, I had a sudden flash of wanting to use a 1897 shot gun to flatten his head, like Earl does in the movie. The firearms in this movie are cool, there are no modern guns at all, they are all beat up old collectors items (like the characters, i guess), the gun in the stripclub is a Browning 1919 BTW, wasn't in WW1 at all, and no bayonet on it, - but like I said, I'm as pathetic as him for getting annoyed about his review.This film is uncompromising and fresh, the style is gritty and almost messy, Eric Roberts is stand alone, a fantastic actor, and Davi battles him good for the scenery chewing awards. Michael ironside gives a small speech on gangster etiquette at the beginning and I can now quote it verbatim, it's a small part but it stays with you!earl's car deserved it's own credit in the titles, as it's a character unto itself.The bottom line. As i watched this film, it felt interesting and new, but a little slow getting to it's point, then the shooting happened and a divine light came over me and it all made sense. I have watched it three more times and most assuredly get it now.This is a blistering individual film, a head and shoulders above most of the steamy crXp in the theater. This film isn't about the plot, or the suspense or any of that stuff, it's about the characters and the world they live in and boy i enjoyed it.Terry. C.
