No man's land review

 Number 331 on the top 1000 films of all time is the crime thriller 'No Man's Land.'

Ben Ayles (D.B Sweeney) is a rookie cop in San Diego looking to make a name for himself. When an undercover cop is killed, police Lieutenant Vincent Bracey (Randy Quaid) suspects billionaire playboy Ted Varrick (Charlie Sheen) of the murder. Unable to prove it, he sends Ayles deep undercover to gain evidence of Varrick's guilt.

What this thriller was missing was any form or heart or anything to distinguish itself from any other crime thriller. It was very generic and under-whelming. In fairness, director Peter Werner tried adding in some heart with a romantic subplot between Ayles and Varrick's sister Ann (Lara Harris) but the two of them lacked enough chemistry to make the romance convincing. It was closer to corny than cute.

Speaking of chemistry, I'm not convinced how much chemistry Sweeney and Sheen had together. Considering how much of the film is based around their friendship, this seemed like a fatal omission. The big conflict centered on whether Ayles would go native in his efforts to extract a confession from Varrick, but I didn't care either way.

Part of this was down to Charlie Sheen. He gave a one-note, two-dimensional performance as Ted Varrick. Varrick is supposed to be a smarmy, arrogant playboy billionaire, car thief and career criminal. Sheen played this part well, but he didn't bring much else to the role. D.B Sweeney was much better as Ayles. Ayles had far more depth to his character.

But this wasn't enough to rescue a generic, banal crime drama. Even the car chases were boring. And if your car chases are boring in an action film, then you're definitely doing something wrong.