Death Toll (2008) User Reviews

Dreadful

[gridoon2024 · 2/10 · 19 February 2008]

Perhaps the best indication of this film's quality lies in the fact that even DMX, who is second-billed, doesn't bother to show up long enough to have any interactions with any of the other characters; instead, he occasionally pops up as a talking head in a dark room, pontificating about life and death. Lou Diamond Phillips, who is first-billed, appears for a total of no more than 10 minutes and cashes probably the easiest paycheck of his life. Although "Death Toll" is billed as an ACTION film on IMDb, there is not even ONE small decent action sequence to be found, just a few (badly directed) shootings. Let me repeat: there is NO ACTION in this "action" movie. It's more of a drama - one, however, where all the characters are stereotypes (from the idealistic mayor - Lou - and the lazy police officers to the career-driven female assistant DA and the vulgar, mindless, illiterate drug pushers), where the dialogue cannot be followed without subtitles (either because of "da hood" lingo or because the constant rap music drowns it out), and where most of the cast is made up by rappers. The only bright spots in this positively dreadful film are the absolutely gorgeous Leila Arcieri and Keshia Knight Pulliam - if they were given more to do, I might have given "Death Toll" more than 0.5 out of 4 stars.

Wow

[thatsarappp · 1/10 · 21 March 2009]

To say Im a huge DMX fan would be a gross understatement. So when I saw a movie starring my man, that appeared to be more drama than action, I had to buy it. I didn't expect too much, but I also didn't expect a total piece of garbage.

Im going to be honest with you here...This is one of the worst films I have ever seen. Not THE worst, but definitely somewhere in the top 10. Im actually kind of surprised everyone involved in this project would allow this thing to hit the shelves. Because in all seriousness, I would be ashamed to be associated with this mess.

First of all, DMX and Lou Diamond Phillips have no business being the first credited actors, and no business being on the cover of the DVD. Why? They are hardly even a part of the film. X appears 3 or 4 times for less than a minute each time, and Mr Phillips has about the same amount of face time. This is not good, as the film really could have used more of them to redeem it somewhat.

There is no story, it jumps all over the place, there was LITERALLY ZERO character development, and the acting was horrific. It was pretty much 80 minutes of people shooting each other full of holes. Other than that, it was a series of images that add up to nothing.

It is not often that I have a tough time finishing a movie. This one nearly got the better of me, but I stuck it out. It really was not to my benefit. I don't really know what else to say. This film is really bad. I honestly cannot say one good thing about it. That's frightening. Do not spend money to watch it, seriously.

I really, for the life of me, cant figure out what these people were attempting to accomplish here. Regardless of what that may be, they failed miserably. I don't often hand out 1s, but I am obligated to do so in this instance.

thought it was a porn movie

[donjopi · 1/10 · 15 November 2008]

Very funny, I got this movie by mistake, The clerks (now that is a good movie:)) at the shop accidentally put this DVD in the box of the one I wanted to see. After the first 2 minutes (already realizing it was the wrong movie) I started to believe it was a really really bad porn movie. It wasn't, just unbelievable bad. period. I tried to watch it just for the fun, but that soon seemed to be impossible. It wasn't even funny bad. Just bad. Bad bad bad bad bad. Honest i didn't know this was possible.But it was helpful in a way. Because of the absolute absence of proper lighting and acting for that matter, I know have so much more respect for 'normal'movies.

More Documentary than Action

[seahorse76-1 · 4/10 · 29 May 2008]

I decided to watch the movie because I was curious about DMX and Lou Diamond Philips. DMX was something like a narrator and Philips was one of the "main parts", but not seen very often on the screen. After the first 20mins I was waiting for the Action, but there was nearly none except a few minutes of shooting scenes during the movie and lots of dead people and blood. I was lucky that the movie has subtitles, so I was able to understand everything. Lots of slang, weird talking and a lot of the F***-word. without these words, the movie would have been 30mins shorter. The movie is more a documentary than an action movie but even as a documentary the movie is still a bit boring and disappointing. If you do have no expectations you won't be disappointed.

deceiving

[mathildakorah · 1/10 · 7 May 2008]

i had to wait a couple of weeks to be able to rent this movie at red box because i was exited to see what was in store for movie fans. i was surprised to see how bad it was. in fact i did not finish it, "boring as hell". i do not understand why Lou and DMX can be in a movie that bad. i wanted to see it because of them, not the title. if the intent of the movie was to show the reality of violence and drug in some neighborhoods or how hard life can be in them, there are movies that have done a better job. how can two well known and good actors participate or even produce what looks like a low budget and non professional movie. a few minutes after i started to watch the movie i was no longer interested in finishing it. there was too many mistakes and i was confused. i had a hard time following the story and that's annoying. none of the actors acted as pro even those who are suppose to be. after seeing DMX with Steven Seagal and with Jet Lee in other movies i could not believe he was involved in that farce that was a shock. it's a good thing that the movie was free, i would have regretted my money. i still regret the time i spent being all exited. actors should think before putting their names or participate in certain projects. where are the friends and the critics? MDX better get serious next time he wants to produce another movie. that people, was not good at all

TWIZZLER?

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 21 April 2019]

The movie takes place in New Orleans. Two bad actors are talking on a hood of a car. Nu$$ie, wearing a hair net, who apparently hates bad actors shoots one of them. It turns out he belonged to a rival gang of bad actors. Some more bad actors show up at the scene disguised as policemen and the people in the hood won't talk to them, hoping all bad actors will die. The Feds (Lisa Marie Dupree) have their own bad actors who conflict with the local extras. To add to the confusion, a white male detective (Alec Rayme) is married to a black female lawyer. He has a somewhat black female partner (Leila Arcieri) who always calls him to the irritation of the wife who is threatening to Bobbitt him. OH! TALK TO THE HAND!

I had to laugh when the 2 bad acting cops grabbed a local youth at the crime scene. He held him while she pulled her gun out and pointed at his chest demanding information. How many laws did the cops break with that one? DMX leads the rival gang of rappers who did the killing.

Lou Diamond Phillips plays the mayor with few lines. The "Dr. J" flashback scene was so bad it was comical.

This was a terrible movie. The good news is that they shot the whole thing on the first take, saving tons of money. It was comical in the way Seagal films are comical. (If you don't laugh at Seagal films, you may not find this one funny.) It has a very high MST potential, which means in an altered state you could possibly find this thing entertaining. DO NOT WATCH SOBER!

Oneal A. Isaac, who plays the police chief constantly stuffing his face had the best part.

F-bomb, N-word, token nude (not Leila)and sex scene

the truth about the movie

[asdfh-26-437951 · 4/10 · 12 April 2011]

don't watch this if you're expecting great acting performances. if you are from new orleans/baton rouge (well at least certain parts lol) you will recognize some of the "actors" in the movie. these are guys from the street. some are rappers, some are former drug dealers etc. the "pee wee" character is a rapper named nussie who died a few years ago. this movie is a pretty accurate portrayal of his music and real life unfortunately. laughable "acting" especially considering some of the people involved. dmx is only in it for a few minutes. i cant help but to think that maybe lou diamond and keshia knight must be in terrible financial straits to green light a movie like this.

Not the Worst

[connjamie · 7/10 · 11 April 2023]

So to judge this movie against other movies on the whole is the mistake most would make. This is clearly a lower-tier production that would be akin to the minor league or farm system of baseball. When looked at in that context, there is a lot of positives about this movie, hence the 7 rating. I found it entertaining. In the real world I would probably give it a 2/10. DMX showed up for a day to do some spoken word DMX gangster/God/barking dog poetry. Lou Diamond I felt bad for. His scenes you can almost see by the look on his face he can't believe what it's come to. This is barely a real movie, but watchable.