The Ministers
The Ministers
R | 16 October 2009 (USA)
The Ministers Trailers

A NYPD detective attempts to avenge the death of her father, but unwittingly becomes involved with one of his killers.

Reviews
Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??
Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.
ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
charlytully It's not like I have a thing against dual roles. For the kids of yesteryear, Patty Duke makes a passable pair of cousins. In the sci-fi puzzler MOON--released within months of THE MINISTERS--Sam Rockwell divided three ways comes off as a heck of a lot richer than the thin gruel provided here when Leguizamo is merely split once. Even the math in this SISTERS wannabe gets fuzzy, as the badder twin's half-baked make-up job smacks of the post-accident district attorney in THE DARK KNIGHT, leaving it up to the viewer to decide if there really are 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 Leguizamos (assuming they are interested enough in this less-than-it-seems-at-first story to do any such calculations in the first place).One of the main faults of what could have been a better film, besides the shortcomings of the male lead, is that it weakens as it goes along, ending with a seen-coming-from-a-mile-away climax which not only fails to satisfy, but even smacks of the sort of "let's off the crazies in a morally unambiguous way even if it doesn't jive with the first 99% of the movie" which often was required by the Hayes Puritanical Censorship Code in a country allegedly setting the world standard for "Freedom of Speech" from 1934 until 1964.
Claudio Carvalho In New York, Detective Alberto Santana (Benny Nieves) comes with his partner Joseph Bruno (Harvey Keitel) to meet his wife Gina and his daughter Celeste (Gabriella Fanuele) to celebrate her eighteenth birthday. Out of the blue, Alberto is shot in his head on the sidewalk by a man wearing a hood that delivers a religious message from the Lord. Many years later, Celeste (Florencia Lozano) is a detective of the New York Police Department and partner of Joe Bruno. When the crooks Alden and Jeff Kane, who had torched their buildings to receive the insurance, are released from prison, they are executed by two criminals in the same modus operandi of detective Santana, and the police department concludes that they are the same killers. Lieutenant Diaz (Wanda de Jesus) assigns Detective Manso (Manny Perez) and Detective Demarco (Saul Stein) from narcotics to investigate the case, for the deception of Celeste. Then the drug dealer Chino and his gang are executed in Manhattan's Lower East Side by the killers Dante and his deformed and deranged twin brother Perfecto (John Leguizamo), and Lieutenant Diaz teams up Joe and Celeste with Manso and Demarco. Meanwhile, Dante meets Celeste in the church and they date first and have a love affair. When Perfecto decides to kill Joe, Dante argues with him but the dysfunctional brother does not listen to him."The Ministers" is a film with a good police story ruined by a messy screenplay and a melodramatic direction that transforms a gloomy story with great potential in a soap opera. John Leguizamo and Harvey Keitel have reasonable performances, but Florencia Lozano does not convince as a detective and does not show any chemistry with John Leguizamo. This film really deserved Abel Ferrara in the direction. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Justiceiros de Deus" ("Vigilantes of God")
kosmasp Of course Boondock Saints wasn't the first movie, with people on a "mission", but you kinda feel like this goes a similar way. It also has some other people in it though and does not play for laughs or strays off into another reality. This stays grounded in "our" world, with real problems and some confusion (character and otherwise).It stays morally ambiguous, which may or may not be a good thing (depending on your view of things, or how you liked the acting. Name checking aside (also character names, see John L. for that), it does not bring completely new things on the table. But what it serves, it serves up pretty good (for a low budget movie that is). Harvey ("Bad Lieutenant") Keitel is always dependable, though John L. seems not at the top of his game. I've seen him do better things, with his roles.
Bob_the_Hobo Saw Harvey Keitel on the cover, so it couldn't be all bad right? True. Not all that bad.John Leguizamo plays dual roles as a pair of brothers who kill for the church, one of which falls in love with the daughter of one of his victims. Harvey Keitel is one of the daughters late fathers friends, who watches over the daughter, who is now a cop.Acting wasn't bad. Leguizamo is pretty good as the two brothers. The female lead is forgettable, but not awful. Keitel is great as always. The only horrible performance that made my skin crawl was from Wanda de Jesus (as the police captain), that woman can not act.Not a bad straight to DVD mystery/thriller. I'd check it out if everything else is gone at Blockbuster.