Reviewed by Lara Williams
Stars Tom Sizemore, Edward Olmos, James Olmos, Resmine Atis,
Enrique Almeida | Written by Enrique Almeida, Adrian Cruz & Michael D Olmos
UK certification 18 | UK RRP £12.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 90 minutes | Directed by Michael D. Olmos
The debut feature film by director Olmos, Splinter traces alcoholic Detective John Cunningham partnered up with impossibly glamorous and beautiful Detective Gramm, to solve a drive-by shooting case between two Latino gangs.
Poorly acted, two dimensional and horrifically clichéd - Hispanic women aren't simply Hispanic women, nay, they're feisty Latinas and terrible hip hop is played whenever they walk sexily across the screen. The cops are uniformly flawed and troubled heroes, just trying to get by in a cut-throat world. Gang members are caught up in circumstances out of their control, and we are constantly reminded of this with 'poignant' dialogue such as 'I don't know what anything means anymore'. Deep.
It's like an extended version of an exceptionally formulaic, exceptionally rubbish, cop drama found on any no-mark cable channel. Splinter thinks it has the grit and edginess of The Wire, when in all actualities, it's about as 'street' as Blazin' Squad.
EXTRAS Interview with the director and cast members.