Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

David Carlson Why? I understand this desire to do low budget independent films with the hope that perhaps, just perhaps, it will be the next pulp fiction - not that this low level script would lead anyone to that conclusion. Yet, there you are, accepting that horrible make-up and rediculous costume. And you didn't walk off the set. You took the inept direction of Steven C. Miller, and just went along with it. Why? Why would a talented actor agree to participate in such nonsense. The other actors all had reasonable characters, with ressonsble accents, and then there was you, Nicolas cage with a rubber nose, waning accent, rediculous wardrobe and hair. I'm sorry, it just begs the question, Why? Did Bernie Madoff take all of your money? Are you now addicted to drugs? Is it just plain greed? I need to understand why. How did they convince you to stay once you witnessed the truth?Please help us all understand.

zardoz-13 Director Stephen C. Miller's straight-to-video crime thriller "Arsenal" is a my-brother's-keeper saga. Miller and his company lensed this film on location in Biloxi, Mississippi, and it appears that they shot the whole thing there. The houses, the community, and the look of everything is so genuine that it couldn't have been faked. Miller doesn't rely on visual tricks, but instead he uses the actual locations. This 94-minute, R-rated, thriller shows why brothers for the most part stick together. The same cannot be said for the other pair of brothers, one of whom is played by Nicolas Cage. Apparently, Cage wanted to play a first-class low-life dastard. Wearing an obvious black mop of a wig, Cage has tried to disguise themselves with a Pinocchio-like nose. He plays the equivalent of Robert De Niro's Al Capone. In one scene, he shoves a length of pipe down a man's throat and then hammers it in the rest of the way with a baseball bat! He is a villain's villain, and Cage wallows in the unruliness of his wicked villainy to the point of overacting. This is Cage as you rarely get to see the Academy Award winning actor. Grenier plays the nice guy, little brother hero who spares nothing to save his big brother from his own self-destructive ways. Mikey (Johnathon Schaech of "The Legend of Hercules" and JP (Adrian Grenier of "Hart's War") grew up as big brother and little brother in Biloxi, Mississippi, and they led lives of miserable desperation. One of them relatives who took care of them decided to blast a crater in his face with a shotgun, and Mikey prevented JP from seeing the carnage by sending him off with a fistful of quarters to play video games at a nearby arcade. Mikey has spent his entire life looking out from his little brother. Sometimes, Mikey wasn't the nicest of big brothers, but he came through with his brother despite the circumstances. "Arsenal" chronicles their lives from tweeners to twentysomethings and beyond. JP has always treated his big brother with respect. Now that they have grown up, their fortunes are turned, and JP looks after is wayward brother. Mikey has gotten himself in deep trouble with a local crime magnate, Eddie King (Nicolas Cage of "The Rock"), who uses Mikey. Mikey finds himself in debt to Eddie, and Eddie wants Mikey to conspire with him to get $350-thousand dollars in ransom money from JP. You see, JP has been fortunate enough to start his own construction business, and he has become wealthy enough to marry and have a child. Meanwhile, Mikey has descended into oblivion, and he finds himself cooperating reluctantly with Eddie to stage a kidnapping to get JP's money. At the same time, JP mounts his own search from his big brother and relies of advice from a local Biloxi Police Department Detective, Sal (John Cusack of "Grosse Pointe Blank"), when he learns that Eddie has his brother. Moreover, Eddie has warned JP that he must not contact the authorities, or he will kick Mikey. Mind you, JP isn't the only guy into trouble up to his neck. As it turns out, Eddie has gone out-of-bounds with his kidnapping and ransom caper, and a member of the New Orleans' mob, his own brother Buddy King (Christopher Coppola of "Torch"), rolls into town to kill him. Buddy doesn't get away with killing Eddie, because Eddie turns the tables on Buddy and kills him! Later, Mikey escapes from Eddie, but he doesn't get far. This prompts sleazy Eddie into abducting Mikey's teenage daughter and making her a part of the kidnapping and ransom deal. Were this not enough to add to JP's problems, he discovers that his business manager has secretly gone behind his back and invested money into renovating houses to earn JP more money. Director Stephen C. Miller and freshman scriptwriter Jason Mossberg has fashioned a heartfelt saga about brothers helping themselves into a credible dramatic thriller that doesn't rely on exploitation elements. JP discovers something about himself that he had never realized. He doesn't shirk his responsibilities to Mikey and Mikey's dysfunctional family. Instead, he steps up to the plate and does the only thing that he knows in spite of the chance that he could die and leave his wife and daughter in jeopardy. Things start slowly, but the action picks up when Mikey reacquaints himself with Eddie King. Grenier makes a believable little brother who refuses to back down, while Johnathon Schaech is simply brilliant as the mischievous big brother.

jtoomuch Movies don't get much worse than this. Between Cage in a ludicrous wig or Grenier as a tough guy I don't know which is worse. Unintentionally funny,embarrassing for all involved. Cage is his scenery chewing self, and Grenier as unconvincing as always. There is , however, some eye candy.

jcjs333 I should have followed my intuition when i saw this in the video store. As i looked at the jacket of the DVD i thought 'this is one of those shows where a couple big name actors are used to bring people in to watch the show but it won't be good'. Whelp, i risked it and i shouldn't have and won't again. Usually, Cusack doesn't 'sell himself out' as much as Cage does. Both, must have done this strictly for the money and ease of doing it. There wasn't any good acting, the script was terrible. All worse than a joke. People were hit with baseball bats and crow bars that would have killed them with one of any of the blows but they were hardly scratched. Dialogue was trite and contrived. As i watched it i realized this show could have been great if Tarentino did it or someone other than whoever did this. I thought of Nicholas Cage in 'Leaving Las Vegas' which i thought was so great. Perhaps, after his divorce he could no longer act. He, truly, was so bad in this he'd have been better off not doing it. Money had to be the reason but , as far as i'm concerned , i won't be interested in his stuff anymore. He tried to play a character he did well 20 years ago but he simply can't act anymore. John Cusack slept through his part and i've seen him do this character in other films. A disgrace. If there were a different director and different actors and different dialogue and different movie this may have been worth seeing. I give it a minus 10 if i could. I have only myself to blame. Nicholas Cage hasn't done a could movie in eons and Cusack isn't much behind. I think, from looking at this show, they are has beens.