The private detective from Los Angeles Ned Cruz (Antonio Banderas) is interrogated by LAPD Detectives Poley (William Fichtner), Frizer (Thomas Kretschmann) and Skeres (Delroy Lindo). Cruz is blind after being hit on the face and asks many times whether "she is alive". Cruz explains to the detectives that after a lost case of his client and Hollywood star Adam Nova (James Van Der Beek), he is tired and returns to his office to rest. Out of the blue, the washed up boxer Anton 'The Pro' Protopov (Robert Maillet) comes to his office to hire him to find his missing girlfriend and former * Lexie Persimmon. Cruz recalls that five years ago, the Russian mobster Skinny Faddeev (Bill Marlowe) gave 30 million dollars in blood diamond in advance to him to lose a fight against his nephew. However, Anton killed the nephew with a punch and when Skinny was found death, he was sentenced to life. While in prison, Lexie writes two hundred and sixty letters to him and they fall in love for each other. When a criminal confesses the murder of Skinny, Anton is released but he does not find Lexie. Ned Cruz starts the investigation and finds a lead that Lexie might be in San Celeritas, New Mexico. Cruz notes that a black Lincoln is following him and he believes that the Russian Mafia is chasing him. However, he heads to the spot and in the Planck 's Constant Coffer, he has an affair with the waitress Autumn Reeser (Fay Neman) that helps him. After reading the letters, Cruz becomes obsessed for Lexie. When Cruz is invited to have dinner with the delusional millionaire Simon Kestral (Sam Elliott), he is introduced to his wife Julie Kestral (Sienna Guillory) and the geek physicist Niels Geck (Jimmi Simpson) and he believes he has resolved the case. However, nothing is what seems to be and Cruz only discovers the truth when it is late. "The Big Bang" is a weird and stylish detective story with a promising beginning and a good twist near the end. However, the part when Ned Cruz meets Simon Kestral is boring and a complete mess and the conclusion is awful. The cinematography and the music score are very nice. The cast has good performances and it is always good to see William Fichtner. My vote is six. Title (Brazil): "Morte por Encomenda" ("Death by Order")

This is the movie Hollywood refuse to do; so being done by independents rarely gets a theatrical release (at least in USA). I am really lucky, catching these movies in countries where culture has not yet being destroyed. This is classic detective story with very modern elements like atomic fusion and a sexual charge uncommon 40 years ago. Private Eye, Ned Cruz is commissioned by an ex-con to find a woman he loves, after and epistolary relationship. He only has her picture and the letters, but the women not only disappeared, but everybody seems to have forgotten her. His research takes him to New Mexico where a billionaire is doing atomic fusion experiments. All this is told in flash back while being questioned three not very friendly policemen. As in the good detective stories; there are more information than necessary, however all the information is there. The acting is outstanding. Banderas proves again he can carry a movie; he is totally credible in a part that does not even seems for him; but almost everybody else is also excellent or at least very good. Everybody seems very motivated in getting the movie right. And they succeed. The technical aspects; particularly cinematography are excellent also. There are lots of artistic details but is never too charged. Summary, just see it, pay attention and enjoyed it

My initial impression of serious confusion relating to the garbled soundtrack of competing international accents quickly focused on the storyline most literally copied from Raymond Chandler's classic noir, "Farewell My Lovely". I use the term copied rather than plagiarized as I have no idea of the screen writer's intent. My interest in the film quickly faded after 15 useless minutes of genre bending crap. Poor Chandler gets no respect from this abortion. Please note that this effort need not have gestated beyond the need for the writer to have a productive bowel movement. The need for Antonio Banderas to have work is fairly obvious if his recent filmography of the past five years is taken into account. The director's use of artistic license in camera work and special effects should result in the termination of his Guild membership. I understand that Delroy Lindo is somewhat choosy about his selection of roles so that info is obviously total bullshit. I hope everyone involved in this sordid miscarriage finds the intestinal fortitude to remove it from their work history.

The private detective from Los Angeles Ned Cruz (Antonio Banderas) is interrogated by LAPD Detectives Poley (William Fichtner), Frizer (Thomas Kretschmann) and Skeres (Delroy Lindo). Cruz is blind after being hit on the face and asks many times whether "she is alive". Cruz explains to the detectives that after a lost case of his client and Hollywood star Adam Nova (James Van Der Beek), he is tired and returns to his office to rest. Out of the blue, the washed up boxer Anton 'The Pro' Protopov (Robert Maillet) comes to his office to hire him to find his missing girlfriend and former * Lexie Persimmon. Cruz recalls that five years ago, the Russian mobster Skinny Faddeev (Bill Marlowe) gave 30 million dollars in blood diamond in advance to him to lose a fight against his nephew. However, Anton killed the nephew with a punch and when Skinny was found death, he was sentenced to life. While in prison, Lexie writes two hundred and sixty letters to him and they fall in love for each other. When a criminal confesses the murder of Skinny, Anton is released but he does not find Lexie. Ned Cruz starts the investigation and finds a lead that Lexie might be in San Celeritas, New Mexico. Cruz notes that a black Lincoln is following him and he believes that the Russian Mafia is chasing him. However, he heads to the spot and in the Planck 's Constant Coffer, he has an affair with the waitress Autumn Reeser (Fay Neman) that helps him. After reading the letters, Cruz becomes obsessed for Lexie. When Cruz is invited to have dinner with the delusional millionaire Simon Kestral (Sam Elliott), he is introduced to his wife Julie Kestral (Sienna Guillory) and the geek physicist Niels Geck (Jimmi Simpson) and he believes he has resolved the case. However, nothing is what seems to be and Cruz only discovers the truth when it is late. "The Big Bang" is a weird and stylish detective story with a promising beginning and a good twist near the end. However, the part when Ned Cruz meets Simon Kestral is boring and a complete mess and the conclusion is awful. The cinematography and the music score are very nice. The cast has good performances and it is always good to see William Fichtner. My vote is six. Title (Brazil): "Morte por Encomenda" ("Death by Order")

First, read the other reviews that rate this lowest - no need to repeat what they say, yes, this is a total piece of garbage. Banderas is awful, the script is pathetic, everyone involved should be ashamed. But in case you are wondering how it ends (yes, I actually watched it all, I was curious) - the letters were written by a cross-dressing physicist (I'm not kidding), the cops turn out to be the villains (Oh No!), Banderas manages to kill all three of them (shocker!), the Big Bang experiment just blows up and leaves a huge crater (whew!), Banderas gets away with the two girls and the diamonds, which they find in the gecko's tank. So now you don't need to waste your time watching to the end, stop wherever you are, it does NOT get better.

After this painful ripoff of "Murder, My Sweet" (Dick Powell) and "The Falcon Takes Over"(George Sanders) and "Farewell, My Lovely", (Robert Mitchum), Raymond Chandler must be recoiling in his grave. The opening was entirely stolen almost word for word from "Murder, My Sweet"; the blinded Marlowe being questioned, then Marlowe alone in his dark office looking out the window when suddenly he sees this dinosaur aka Moose Malloy reflected in the glass. Then follows the bar and the fight routine. Later Marlowe aka Cruz asks: "How will I find you?" "I'll find you." I was driving my wife crazy quoting lines before the actors could get them out. Okay, the Moose Malloy character was bigger than any before, I'll give them that. But the accents of Cruz and Anton made them almost unintelligible. Subtitles might have helped. They changed Velma to Lexie, but sadly they were nothing alike. Velma was a hard-as-nails fighter while Lexie was the classic * with a heart of gold. Starting with that, the plot line began to change slightly, presumably to make it fresher and more up-to-date in this fourth outing of the same story, but none of the changes made the story better by any means. I'm a great Sam Elliot fan. Loved him in "Did you hear about the Morgans?" but in this role I was embarrassed for him. Maybe voice-over commercials don't pay as well as I thought. The cover promised an intense thriller filled with action with, of course, no mention of a tired remake, borrowed from Mr. Chandler without anybody's consent. Half the film involved three detectives casually jawing with Cruz, and it only picked up toward the end in a ridiculously contrived grand finale. Slow and tedious. Instead of asking How did they do it? I'd ask: Why did they do it?

This is the movie Hollywood refuse to do; so being done by independents rarely gets a theatrical release (at least in USA). I am really lucky, catching these movies in countries where culture has not yet being destroyed. This is classic detective story with very modern elements like atomic fusion and a sexual charge uncommon 40 years ago. Private Eye, Ned Cruz is commissioned by an ex-con to find a woman he loves, after and epistolary relationship. He only has her picture and the letters, but the women not only disappeared, but everybody seems to have forgotten her. His research takes him to New Mexico where a billionaire is doing atomic fusion experiments. All this is told in flash back while being questioned three not very friendly policemen. As in the good detective stories; there are more information than necessary, however all the information is there. The acting is outstanding. Banderas proves again he can carry a movie; he is totally credible in a part that does not even seems for him; but almost everybody else is also excellent or at least very good. Everybody seems very motivated in getting the movie right. And they succeed. The technical aspects; particularly cinematography are excellent also. There are lots of artistic details but is never too charged. Summary, just see it, pay attention and enjoyed it

I watched this movie for two reasons, first, I like the TV Series "The Big Bang Theory", and second, I enjoy watching most Antonio Banderas movies. Aside from this I had no clue what to expect. The movie starts out well enough and for about the first 40 minutes or so weaves a mildly interesting plot. After a certain point the movie takes a few confusing turns where the viewer is wondering how the new direction is going to align with the plot that was woven earlier. The climax, where the plot is revealed, is surprisingly good. Though, the ending, where the two separate paths the movie had taken are brought together is, in my opinion, quite lame. The acting is good enough. Antonio Banderas and William Fichtner are good actors and they do a decent job. The rest of the cast doesn't fail either. In the end, it is the script which is a let down. Maybe it seemed great on paper and lost its charm when brought alive on the screen. One more thing. The script somehow brings nuclear physics into play. Why or to what end is the question the viewer is likely to ask after the movie ends. When an element as strong as science, mathematics or religion has to be brought in, I believe, making it central to the plot would pay off better dividends. For example, "Pi" by Darren Aronofsky or "Back to the Future" movies. Overall, it is an average thriller with bits of science thrown in. It is not exactly a waste of time, if you happen to catch it on TV. Otherwise, I wouldn't go out of my way to buy or rent a DVD. You aren't missing anything.

I'm not as eloquent as Mr Krachtman, but agree almost totally with his views. I DID love the introduction grabbed you with the visuals, especially the ways the colors, movement, and time flow demanded your attention. I hit the rewind 3 times at the intro's end before I continued on. I missed the earlier film this was ripped from, but will be sure to watch it. It became pretty obvious in the first 15 minutes that someone was running a scam, and it was relatively easy to figure it out about 10 minutes before the AHA! scene. I am no puritan, but there are many releases of this type that would be the perfect movie to watch with my 82 year old Mum or my 23 year old daughter. Like every other Hollywood release in the last 3 years, there always has to be the 2 minute nasty freaky gratuitous sex scene. Yes I understand that younger adults, and middle aged adult like myself have absolutely no problem with watching this in cinema with our peer group. It's a real shame that so many fine films have that 2 minute nasty that precludes me from watching this with or recommending it to my adult children or more mature parents. I think we could get more in line with Bollywood.

With Antonio Banderas being the lead role, I was looking forward to watching this movie. He was, however, the part that probably made this movie a huge failure. 90% of this movie is dialogue/narration, and a majority of that is by Banderas. The story itself may have some promise, but it's so difficult to follow because it's impossible to understand what Banderas is saying for most of the movie. The movie supposedly has witty dialogue and clever punchlines, but because they're delivered by Banderas, you don't understand any of it. You hear "mumble, mutter, accent on wrong word, pause at awkward part of the sentence, mumble" followed by the characters on screen laughing at whatever it was that he just said. At first, I would go back and rewatch with volume on high to hear what it was that he said, but after the first 30 minutes, I gave up. Don't waste your time with this movie. You will just give yourself a headache.