Another hit man story, continuing the fascination filmmakers have with organized crime. Scorcese, Coppola and now you can add Shapiro to the list.
Alcoholic hit man, Benjamin (Eric Shapiro) is hired by drug lord Adrian Peru (Stu Panensky) to murder a man for $500,000 dollars. It seems the victim, Lewis, cheated Peru out of $20,000 from a cocaine deal. Benjamin has a history with Lewis, so Benjamin calls him warning Lewis to leave the country or else. Unfortunately, Lewis doesn’t get out of the house in time and Benjamin shows up to carry out the deed, which involves cutting off Lewis’ head as proof for Peru. Unfortunately, Benjamin gets sick from some gin left on the doorstep, which was apparently laced. He pulls a Robert Downey Jr. by passing out in a nearby house with Lewis’ head in a trash bag stuffed in the frig. Things get progressively worst for Benjamin when the occupants, a rabbi and his wife come home. His resulting actions later anger Peru who brings in a man called The Doctor (Jeremy Levine) to “operate” on Benjamin. Common sense says that it doesn’t really make much sense that Peru would pay $500,000 to kill someone over $20,000. Benjamin’s obviously not all that bright.
Sure many, many films have been made about hit men, the mafia and drug dealers. These topics do offer some great material to work with. In the case of Shaken & Disturbed it serves as a solid and competent exercise in filmmaking.
