Blu-Ray Review: Way Of The Wicked

By Brad Henderson

A question I often ask myself is: what happened to Christian Slater? I honestly don’t know the answer but ever since 2004 he has had a weird career. I’ve always thought he was a fun actor and decent in the movies he was in. I know people tend to laugh at that but I honestly don’t know what people have against him. It’s true that he doesn’t act in the best films these days but still, where did it all go wrong and how did we end up disliking Christian Slater?

Recently Christian Slater co-starred in a film alongside Vinnie Jones called Way Of The Wicked and it’s about . . . angels? Demons? Or something. I’m not sure what the hell is going on, but it is one of the most predictable films I’ve seen this year. The acting is decent and Vinnie Jones gives a capable dramatic performance but it isn’t strong enough to save the film. The characters are not developed enough for us to connect to anyone and the film sets its focus on all the wrong things and tries too hard to be clever. Even after the “big shocker” the film doesn’t explain itself and makes you scratch your head trying to decide if you missed something. Sadly, you didn’t miss anything. That was it.

If anything, Way of the Wicked could have been shorter and been really effective, but we have to deal with an hour and a half of the exact same thing over and over again and it gets tiresome. A priest is investigating an attack on a boy in a playground. One of the attackers died mysteriously during the event and everything points back to the victim. Fast-forward five years and the boy has come back to town. He had moved away but the movie doesn’t really explain much other than that the family was hassled even though nothing was wrong with the boy as far as they could tell. The priest is the only one who thought something was wrong. Oh well, five years later weird shit starts to happen and the boy is being investigated again. That is pretty much the plot. There are hints of supernatural elements through the film but it doesn’t really fit.

Trashing a film isn’t my thing and I don’t want to continue with the negativity. Watch Way of the Wicked, see if you have the same feelings I do, and let me know. Like I said, all the performances are decent, including the one from the kid who plays Robbie. This could be a fun Sunday morning film to watch while it’s raining and you have nothing else to do.

Way of the Wicked will be released on May 20 on Blu-Ray from Image Entertainment.