PAWN SHOP CHRONICLES DVD (2013)

SYNOPSIS: In this shop, these people may be pawning far more than they bargained for: Brendan Fraser (The Mummy), Elijah Wood (The Lord Of The Rings), Vincent D'Onofrio (Men In Black), Academy Award nominee Matt Dillon (Crash), Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead), Thomas Jane (Hung), Lukas Haas (Inception), and Paul Walker (Fast & Furious), star in 3 twisted tales all connected by items from a Southern small-town pawn shop. A man searching for his kidnapped wife, a couple of white-supremacist drug dealers, and a sad-sack Elvis impersonator, plus more desperate characters come to life in the action-packed and hilarious story written by Adam Minarovich and from the director of The Cooler and Running Scared, Wayne Kramer.

MOVIE REVIEW:

It’s not the just the library where you can get your daily dosage of lurid and twisted tales. The pawn shop for one has its fair share. This Wayne Kramer’s outing has three twisted somehow interrelated tales to share and trust us, it’s seriously batshit crazy. Every story starts from the pawnshop owned by a cranky owner, Alton (Vincent D’ Onofrio) who spends his days chatting with his friend, Johnson (Chi McBride) besides attending to his business of trading and bartering.

In the first tale, “The Shotgun” starring the late Paul Walker and Luke Haas (jobs), three dumb meth heads are planning to rob their usual drug supplier but an unexpected argument involving Haas character, Vernon pawning off the shotgun for gas got them nowhere. Now the most entertaining aspect of it is Walker who shed off his pretty boy image and transforming himself into a paranoid dumbass white supremacist. The exchanges between him and fellow friend, Randy is simply hilarious because it’s so pointless. Thomas Jane (Hung) appeared for no reason other than handing Vernon a shotgun and you don’t even see Norman Reedus’ face (he plays the drug supplier) throughout the segment. Still, the whole episode ended on a high note. Literally there's a massive firework in the end.

“The Ring” perhaps the most gruesome and macabre of all stars Matt Dillion (Armored) as Richard who walks in to the shop to pawn his wedding ring when his bank account is hacked. But an unexpected finding instead propels him to look for his missing wife who mysteriously vanished six years ago. The journey which consists of a few brutal fights along the way finally took him to a large farmhouse where a decent looking chap, Shaw (Elijah Wood) lives. Not to spoil your viewing experience, just beware of a torture session involving some fishing hooks and a hammer. And top it all, naked sex slaves. Whoa. Liked mentioned earlier, this segment is so maniac that it proceeds like a cheesy grindhouse flick and obviously Wood is relishing his time as being yet another psychotic character.  

The last and the most underwhelming, “The Medallion” stars Brendan Fraser (Crash) as a down-and-out Elvis impersonator, Ricky. Being invited to perform at a county fair, he finds himself trapped in a tussle between two local barbers. Don’t even ask why. More interestingly, Ricky is being approached by the Devil to sell his soul in exchange to makes his dreams come true. Did he accept the offer in the end? You should know the outcome. Fraser is still as gung-ho as ever playing the comic role, the movie however is just too indie a comedy for him to make a comeback.

Pawn Shop Chronicles is simply a trashy, Quentin Taratino + Stephen King wannabe. While certainly not as good as Kramer’s Running Scared and plain dumb for the most time, it warrant at least a single viewing for the sake of Walker’s presence and his role as one of the producers. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Looking and sounding cheap, don’t expect the visual and audio aspects to go beyond that.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee