At Close Range

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The last twenty minutes of this rather enliven it, but otherwise it's rather dull story of "Brad" (Sean Penn) who is rather in awe of his criminal "Dad Brad" (Christopher Walken) and hopes to one day emulate what he sees as his glamorous lifestyle. One such day arrives when the father agrees to plan a robbery for his son to execute only things don't go to plan and just about everyone discovers just how vicious the older man can be when it comes to his own self-preservation. Most of this is really just an excuse for Penn to wander around shirtless showing off his pecs whilst a few variations of Madonna's "Live to Tell" serenade us from the sidelines. The two women who feature here - Mary Stuart Masterson's "Terry" and Millie Perkins's "Julie" make little impact on the Penn family beauty pageant (his brother Chris also features as his younger sibling "Tommy") and though Walken emanates just an hint of menace as the plot thickens, it's all just too little too late by the end when I really wasn't bothered about this repetitive tale of a dysfunctional family with testicles where their brains ought to be. It's based on a real life family in Philadelphia, and maybe that notoriety is all that helps this remain memorable. Neither the writing nor the vaguely pugilistic Penn and his John Wayne walk can do that.