Critic's Grade: F

"Love and a Bullet" is one of those age-old bad-guy-gone-soft vehicles that never had any gas to get started with, mainly because we care so little about the film's central character, Malik Bishop (Anthony 'Treach' Criss of the rap group Naughty by Nature). The film goes out of its way to portray his life as one through which violence and murder was learned and accepted; the murder of his mother at the hands of his father leads him into a world of shady dealings that eventually land him a spot as the top hit man for a major mob boss. But wouldn't you know, he's in love with the boss's supposedly unfaithful girlfriend (or as the movie likes to call them, b****), and when he receives orders to "make her disappear," he's torn between his duty and a feeling he can't quite understand.

Don't worry, though: it's not important to the plot whether or not his feelings are genuine, or whether he undergoes a change of self in the end. The fact of the matter is, despite the presence of multiple flashbacks, a rewind of past events, and even narration from Bishop himself detailing his thoughts and feelings at precisely the right moment, we just have no reason at all to feel a thing for this man. Even in his indecision to commit the dreadful deed, there is no sense of morality in him, no worthiness of character, and for that, the film suffers drastically.

Not that the rest of the material surrounding Bishop is any more or less involving or entertaining. Catering to the hoards of people who use obscenities like women use tampons, "Love and a Bullet" leaves no racist remark untouched, no vulgarity unused, and no shameless tactics to rest. The violence is of course over-the-top, but never intense or even fun, and the movie lacks the suspense needed to keep us involved in the action. "The world is full of people that, quite frankly, we all could do without," says Bishop in the opening narration. I hereby submit the names of writing/directing duo Kantz and Ben Ramsey.

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