The violence is played ludicrously exaggerated – shootouts have far more bullets and ricochets than is physically possible, while each wound sprays about a third of the liquid contents of a victim’s body across a wall. In a really silly, self-conscious effect people don’t run but rather glide along as though floating through the air and are accompanied by whoosh sound effects when they slide into place. Director Dan Clark tries for intensity but the effects – like the slamming of multiple takes over the top of one another as Dan Lake wrestles with his inner demons – are often pretentiously cliched. There’s a Chinese meal which seems to be trying to mimic the affectedly naturalistic dialogue of the opening restaurant scene of Reservoir Dogs (1992). Here Clark almost gets it right but the scene’s hopping from topic to topic is so exaggerated you’re never sure if Clark is trying for ironic exaggeration as in the shootout scenes or it is just pretentious overkill.

There are surprisingly moments the film does work and it is usually when Clark forgets about effects and tells some quite strong and real moments of character – like the scene where Alex confronts his childhood friend Fatty who breaks down and talks about the way things really are – just before Alex shoots him; or where an innocent victim who stumbles into the scene demands to know why he is about to be killed. The film shouts out amateurish on all levels, but there is one highly polished performance from Judy Jean Kwon as Rita, as the arts student girlfriend. It is she that leads the film up to a quite interestingly perverse climax.