I have not seen a main male character in a film smoke so much on screen since I watched the 1940's film "The Big Sleep" Starring Humphrey Bogart. One might say that this film is Bogart meets the Marlboro Man. It is so obvious that the Tobacco Industry must have helped finance this terrible recycled film, it's like an hour plus long TV commercial for smoking.
The macho character attired in a black leather jacket Danny Gallagher (Karl Urban) is a disgraced cop who upon his release from prison goes on a revenge mission to get the bad guys. All his fellow cops hate Gallagher because he was accused of being a cop killer. So he is now a lone wolf out for revenge. Gallagher is shot at, beaten and comes back for more. Someone should should have told him that if the beatings and bullets don't kill him, his chain smoking surely will!
The story and plot has been done so many times before, it is the same old same old. But the shocking thing about this film is the shameful outright advertising for cigarette smoking. I had read where famous movie stars were offered thousands of dollars to smoke in their films. Since cigarette ads in magazines had been banned for years, along with TV ads and billboard advertising. The cigarette industry wants desperately to get the public to see smoking in a positive light. So here Gallagher lights up constantly in this film, the macho hero Gallagher is more than happy to oblige.
I read where the Director of this film wanted to do a modern day film noir with Gallagher as an updated Bogart, with a cigarette so ever in his and and puffing away. Yet, back in the 1940's the public was not aware of the dangers of cigarette smoking, we are today! Funny thing though Gallagher the hero is a smoker and the villains in this film are all non-smokers. Another peculiar item, all the cigarette packs is this film have no label, they are all light blue in color. I suppose the tobacco industry would get a lot of flack if Gallagher had a visible pack of Marlboros or Camels in his hand.
So this film could be called the return the hero smoker the Marlboro Man, not a cowboy, a cop this time around.
