Beyond the Trophy (2012) User Reviews

Achingly awful Scorsese/Tarantino wannabe.

[c-conley90 · 1/10 · 10 October 2014]

Made on the fly in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Beverly Hills, is the cheapest version of the Departed ever made. Crooked cop and Mark Whalberg impersonator Stephen Cloud is the main character with the only two good actors resorted to minor roles. By that I mean Madsen and Roberts. Though Madsen is pretty much omnipresent through the whole thing with his weird badly recorded narration that is trying to be Casino. Meanwhile Michael Masini is playing the Leonardo Dicaprio role of this movie as a undercover cop working with Madsen's mob buddies and the plot goes into a messy series of incidents that lead to a lot of people dead and me feeling irritated. Mostly the movie seemed to be shot with a camcorder in someone's home and has that feel through several scenes. Other times bad ADR on Russian Gangsters rears it's ugly head in one scene. And to spoil something Eric Roberts' character dies pointlessly for some reason at the end of the movie. Something that really wasn't needed. And how come Michael Madsen got off with Jail time at the end of this movie? Stephen Cloud is the hero or anti-hero of this movie? What gives? This movie is cheap, it has a cheap car chase scene. Apparently the cast rented out strip club dancers and used those too. Yo Boy or ya boy needs to not have a career in rap. The guns don't even have a flash or muzzle smoke to them, just sounds of guns going off and no squibs. That's how cheap this movie was.

Beyond awful

[Wizard-8 · 21 July 2016]

Both Michael Madsen and Eric Roberts have appeared in a lot of cheap and junky projects in recent years, but I had a little hope for this effort because it had both of those actors in its cast. But the end results make it a career low for both of them. Roberts doesn't make that much of an appearance in the movie, nor does he make much of an effort, not just for the fact that he is sitting down in almost all of his limited footage. Madsen has somewhat more of a presence (he also narrates), but it's clear he's just going through the motions. I guess the movie could still have worked despite the misuse of its talented stars, but the rest of the movie fails in every way you can think of. The script has the one-two punch of being confusing and boring. The direction comes across as cheap and quick, ranging from the lack of establishing shots to the often poorly recorded dialogue. And the movie has an awesomely cheap feeling, most prominently from the poorly dressed (and poorly chosen) sets and locations. It just goes to clearly show that a talented cast alone does not make a movie work.

IT DOESN'T ALL MAKE IT TO THE STATION

[nogodnomasters · 1/10 · 13 April 2019]

Michael Madsen and Eric Roberts conspire to give us the worse film imaginable. Terry (Stephen Cloud) and Danny (Michael Masini) are two cops who work for Sgt Bachman (Eric Roberts). Danny also works for crime boss Cole Lambert (Madsen) in L.A. Terry wants to take down the Russian mafia crime boss, of which his brother-in-law Ivan is a member. There is also a third crime boss Gino (Robert Miano) in Vegas who gets involved.

The film introduces female characters, and then don't really use them. There is a brief car chase scene, but not much action or thrills in this crime drama, that didn't have much drama either. In order to try to save the film from being a complete disaster, Madsen supplies some omniscient Joe Bob Briggs style narration, even through he is one of the characters away from the scene. Disjointed, uneven, and a bit annoying.

Don't feel you missed anything if you skipped over this film.

Parental Guide: F-bomb. Stripper nudity.

Gillan makes Madsen, Miano & Robert's performances kill.

[PrivatePropertyMusic · 11 April 2013]

Gillan brings out the talent of all involved in this fast paced thriller! This film is an all round 10 of 10. At times your at the edge of your seat.while at times your wiping the steam off your glasses as, the eye candy is always great in a Gillan film! Love it Love it Love It ******** ********* I have worked in a few films myself, and working with Gillan has always been a roller coaster of fun. If the walls could talk.....lol... I would recommend watching this film if not for just PURE Entertainment. This is a cast of people on screen and behind the camera that always turn out a quality product! Judge this film for yourself. Stay home, pop some corn, break open a box of strawberry twizzlers to stir your strawberry marguerita with, sit back and get ready for an E ticket entertaining night. PS~ New face Gary Private as Boris is an actor to keep an eye out for.... I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot more of him in the days to come! (If I have anything to do with it) ;)