I put off reviewing this movie long enough, although now I wish I had put it off indefinitely. I had low expectations to begin with and they were fully realized after finally taking the time to check out the amateurish actioner WAGES OF SIN.

The film is the second feature from multi-faceted filmmaker Nathyn Brendan Masters. His first was THE 4TH BEAST: MASK OF THE ANTICHRIST, a $700 action movie that amazingly managed to get distribution from York Entertainment. For his follow up, Masters has gone the ultra-indie route and has been distributing it himself.

In WAGES OF SIN Masters stars as a God-fearing undercover detective posing as a hitman named Johnny Trigger. His efforts to infiltrate and crack an Asian crime family’s drug trafficking operation are complicated when he runs into a ridiculously long list of crooked cops. Along the way, he comes to the rescue of a reluctant prostitute (CiCi Foster) and unleashes a fury of martial arts moves and gunplay on baddies who get in his way.

Overlong dialogue scenes delivered with virtually no acting ability by any of the so-called actors in this movie is the biggest issue. Other problems that plague WAGES OF SIN include shoddy lighting and sound, issues faced by anyone on a tight budget. The original score has an interesting mix of musical genres, yet the main theme song is almost painful to listen to and other elevator samples repeatedly used during action scenes undermine the attempt to build excitement.

Masters is clearly a big fan of martial arts and action movies, and has some basic skill at stringing together screen fighting moves. He takes after Steven Seagal somewhat in his liberal use of disarming techniques, throws and locks. Some of these move manage to look decent. There is, however, no art involved in the overall process, from the sloppy camera work and sluggish editing to mostly amateur fighting moves on display from everyone Masters meets on screen. Plastic guns constantly being shoved into the camera or given cheap flash fire effects only hinder the production further. There is far too much time devoted to bad gunplay and bad line delivery in between the few rushed martial arts fights.

I will give credit to Masters for managing to pull a completed feature-length movie together that aspires to be a cross between DONNIE BROSCO and ABOVE THE LAW. The script is laid out reasonably well and the lead characters are well defined by genre standards. The title also ties in nicely with Masters’ religious subtext. He tries to work in a Christian angle the same way Seagal tries to work Buddhism into some of his movies. It’s an interesting touch that easily adds a little dimension to the main character. Too bad the general acting and dramatic direction is so bad.

The lesson to be learned here is that aspiring filmmakers with limited resources need to focus on their strengths and discard everything else because most people will only see the flaws. In the case of WAGES OF SIN I’d say what’s salvageable could, and should have fit into a 15-minute short film with the same budget that was spent on the feature film. Masters wouldn’t have had anything to sell, but I’m sure he would have had a better product.

The bottom line is that Nathyn Masters shows some small potential as an action filmmaker and even possibly as an action star, yet very few people are going to want to find that out for themselves. Low-budget filmmaking that still entertains is fine, but WAGES OF SIN is a dull action movie and is far too rough around the edges to bother with.

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