Cadence (1990)
3/10
Boring, useless but with some amusing moments
31 March 2012
Such a shame that good talents were thrown to the winds on a unnecessary effort of trying to make something good out of almost nothing. Story is heavily clichéd, filled with repetitions and there isn't much of a path to walk on with.

"Cadence" tells the story of a soldier (Charlie Sheen) who recently lost his father (Matt Clark) and not knowing how to cope with this news is arrested after some disturbance on a bar. Sent to a military prison where he's the only white man around among the prisoners, this tough guy will have to deal with an even tougher guy than he, a tyrannic Sergeant (Martin Sheen, who also directed this movie) who runs the place with strong hands. So, trouble is set when those two forces collide after some disagreements on how things work in the place and because of the bad temper between both, and a tragedy will define who they are and the course of things will never be the same.

Most of the story is just showing a bunch of guys fighting against each other for meaningless things or over a gold lighter; or the sergeant punishing the soldier for not addressing him as 'sir' (this is quite funny, actually). Where's the goal? Where's the speech, the message in the work? It goes out of one place but stays there without a reason, and all that is plain boring, very drub. Yes, the prisoners exchange ideas with each other, they help things out among themselves and work hard in prison, trying to rehabilitate themselves while the place's chief always seems to disturb their peace, but the film never succeeds in making us interested in all of that, there's nothing magnificent in seeing recurring situations that leads to nowhere.

Not much of an impressive directorial debut for Mr. Sheen (but the tragic scene filmed in slow-motion was quite good despite some melodrama involved), who takes an unimpressive performance from his son and some really average acting from supporting members like Laurence Fishburne, Michael Beach, F. Murray Abraham, James Marshall and others. Performances that go way below the surface, it's almost pitiful. Best thing of this is Martin's character, giving some motion to the picture, some funny moments.

I don't see a way of how this could have been better. Very disappointing. 3/10
3 out of 13 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed