"13" DVD Review - Written by Scott Sawitz

If it wasn’t for the presence of Michael Shannon, 13 would be a rather amusing but otherwise perfunctory remake of a film that didn’t need it. 13 Tzameti was a perfectly acceptable and entertaining film that didn’t necessarily scream to be remade with a high profile, English speaking cast. It’s fitting that the remake is finding its way direct to video in an odd sense; it would’ve been a curiosity, nothing more, in theatres and on DVD it becomes much moreso.

The film has a fairly simple plot. Vince is an electrician (Sam Riley) with money problems who opts to assume the identity of a dead man and take a high paying job with little detail to it. He knows nothing about it at first, bluffing his way inside until he finds the disarming truth. He’s there to be a part of a highly illegal Russian Roulette tournament against a handful of other men, with the stakes being exorbitantly high and the rewards potentially bigger. Handled by a pair expecting the man he replaced, the tournament has a handful of quirky characters. Patrick Jefferson (Mickey Rourke) is a cowboy who gets sold into it after being bailed out of a Tijuana jail. Ronald Bagges (Ray Winstone) is sprung from a mental institution to compete for his brother Jasper (Jason Statham), a wealthy man trying to become much wealthier in the competition. As the competition continues, we find the breaking points of all the men leading to a violent conclusion.

And the film, fairly faithful to the original in part because it was written and directed by the same man (Géla Babluani), with some details changed up to make it appear to not be a shot for shot remake of the film. The film is essentially that, however; a shot for shot remake. Enough has been changed to make it just slightly different but it’s the same film for the most part. There isn’t much of a change to the inherent story or plotline about a desperate man trying to play the odds in a blood sport.

The problem comes from the fact that most of the cast isn’t all that good in it, which is surprising considering how strong it is.

The only one who seems to be having fun with the film is Shannon, who is so gleefully over the top that the rest of the cast seems inadequate in comparison. Shannon, in a small part, is so deliciously over the top that the film elevates out of its mediocrity every time he’s in it. When the film relies on Riley to carry the film it sinks; he’s a worthy protagonist but he isn’t written well in this version of the film for the genre. It is trying too hard to be scary instead of terse; it’s as if the remake of the film was intended to be a horror film and not a dramatic thriller, where the mayerial tends to go.

This is a film that tries to have more of a horror aesthetic when its material is inherently more dramatic than horrifying. It’s a tone problem and Babluani just can’t quite get the tone right. It’s a fairly acceptable film for the direct to video market, where standards are lower for quality, and it’s easy to see why the film went that route. It’d be more laughable, like Nic Cage and Trespass, than dramatic in that setting.

There are no extras on the DVD.