City of Industry MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +1 1/2 Content: -3

City of Industry presents a futuristic view of Los Angeles in a depressing film about small-time thugs who become the prime target of at least three different ethnic mobs. Lee Egan (Timothy Hutton) has master-minded a bold robbery of a jewelry shop in Palm Springs. He persuades his older brother, Roy (Harvey Keitel), to help pull it off. Jorge (Wade Dominguez), a desperate husband and father who cannot support his family, and Skip (Stephen Dorff), a hot-headed, evil young man, also become part of the team. After the holdup, Skip brutally murders Jorge and Lee, but Roy manages to escape. Jorge's widow, Rachel (Famke Janssen), joins Roy in his determination to avenge his brother's death. During these investigations they discover that both Skip and Roy have some dangerous connections to a sophisticated black underworld mob and an Asian crime ring that deal in drugs, sex and violence. Why would reasonably intelligent men waste their brains plotting a robbery that's doomed from the beginning? It's hard to imagine an audience being entertained by a story with no humor, no hope and no point.

Only Rachel displays any hint of responsible commitment to her family, but her ne'er-do-well mate thinks crime is his only option. Devastated by his brother's murder, Roy has no qualms about performing brutal murders and vicious beatings to vent his anger and hate. He and his buddies participate in bloody, closeup shootings, pistol whippings and massive property damage. A few times Roy is left for dead by Skip's thugs, but he somehow survives. When Skip's girlfriend is thrust in front of a gangster as a shield, he shoots her in the stomach. Filthy language illustrates Hollywood's usual lack of creative writing with 64 obscenities, over 50 of them the f-word. One scene in a strip joint features nude dancers, with one view of full frontal female nudity and several of breast nudity as the women perform with lewd movements. City of Industry's conclusion that crime just might pay if you're tough enough, and its foul language, violence and nudity will offend almost everyone.

Preview Reviewer: Mary Draughon
Distributor: Orion Pictures, 1888 Century Park East, Los Angeles CA 90067