Pawn Shop Chronicles

On the 30th of November this year, actor Paul Walker died in a car crash. A tragedy that he had to die so young, only 40 years old. Most people know him from the Fast & Furious franchise. Even if he is not with us anymore, his legacy will live on. I am going to review one of his final motion pictures called Hours, at some point of time. But let´s talk about a movie, not many of you may not have heard of. Pawn Shop Chronicles is said to be a mix of Quentin Tarantino and the 90´s video violence. Paul Walker is here also, along with some other famous actors like Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser, Elijah Wood, and many more. Originally this movie was supposed to be directed by Limp Bizkit front man Fred Durst. But he later jumped off the project, so director Wayne Kramer ( who directed movies like The Cooler, Running Scared ) got the job instead. With a big cast, and a crazy mix of genre classics, is Pawn Shop Chronicles a B movie classic already, or is this ready to go into the nearest trash can ?

Vernon ( Lukas Haas ) walks in to a Pawn Shop. He needs money for gasoline, so he tries to sell his shotgun for 50 dollars, he only gets 20 dollars for the shotgun. Vernon meet up with Raw Dog ( Paul Walker ) and tell him that he sold his shotgun. Raw Dog is furious, because they need a weapon to rob Stanley ( Norman Reedus ) in his drug lab. Suddenly Raw Dog´s friend Randy ( Kevin Ranky ) show up, and hit Vernon with his car. They leave Vernon bleeding in the grass, and begin to plan to rob Stanley, with a bow and arrows that they found. Vernon wakes up as a man approach him, known as The Man ( Thomas Jane ). Venon tells the story, that he was betrayed, so The Man let Vernon borrow his shotgun to get his revenge. Back at the pawn shop, 2 new customers, Richard ( Matt Dillon ) and his new wife Sandy ( Rachelle Lefevre ) walks in. Richard says someone hacked into his bank account. And they are supposed to have their Honeymoon in Florida, so he wants to pawn her wedding ring, just so they can go on vacation. Pawn Shop owner Alton ( Vincent D´Onofrio ) says he does not have enough money to do that. Suddenly Richard notice a ring, underneath the service desk. He asks his new wife Sandy to go outside. Richard know this ring belongs to his first wife Sindy, that dissapeared 6 years ago. So Richard wants to know who sold his missing wifes ring, and make a deal. Alton says the name J.J. Thomason sold him the ring. Richard leaves his new wife at the pawn shop, drives away to find answers from J.J. At a local restaurant, Ricky ( Brendan Fraser ), a cover artist of Elvis Presley, tries to impress one of the waitresses, with no luck. With no cash, he can´t even pay his coffee. Ricky´s girlfriend Theresa ( Ashlee Simpson ) have had enough, not having any money and touring with Ricky with no good future ahead. Theresa takes off, leaving Ricky alone on the road. Richard finds out J.J. works at the local restaurant, he will find out the truth, no matter what the consequences are.

Pawn Shop Chronicles is messy, with lots of jumping between different stories, and there is also bad acting. But here is the good news. There are not many movies out there in the year 2013 that can be compared to this one. Does it mean this is original ? Not really, does it make it a fun dumb movie to watch ? Yes, because this reminds me of a lot of B movies from the 90´s, and i used to watch alot of them in my teens. The characters may not be original either, but just to see Brendan Fraser as a low budget Elvis on a bad costume day is worth the wait. Paul Walker as a stupid redneck is a surprise, i never thought i would see him do a character like this one. And this is even more shocking, he is one of the producers of Pawn Shop Chronicles. This is not a great motion picture, but if you grew up with this genre like i did, you might actually enjoy this ride, with crazy characters and bad fun dialogue. Worst nightmare for Ulf Brunnberg ? Yes i know he would not be happy to see this one, but for the rest of us B movie lovers i think this should work, when you feel like unplugging your brain for 90 minutes.

Rating: DDD