Rating: 
Summary: De Niro's pre-stardom flop becomes a degraceful dvd!
Review: As other reviewers have already mentioned, even the most hardcore Robert De Niro fan should avoid this dvd like the plague! The picture and sound quality is simply horrible, and the film itself is an uneven mess from beginning to end. De Niro himself has publicly stated his embarrasment over this bad movie and the exploitation of his name that was used in the 1983 re-release of "The Swap".
"The Swap" was originally titled "Sam's Song", and was filmed in 1969. The film's scheduled release for 1971 was aborted, until in 1980 (after De Niro had become a star) it was finally released. The film was re-edited and new footage of the ultra-sexy Sybil Danning (who played the femme fatale, of course!) was added to make it more appealing to audiences. But, even that couldn't save this movie from being a disaster.
De Niro plays Sam, who's murdered in the first few minutes of the movie. Ten years later, his brother Vito (played by Anthony Charnotta) has been released from prison and quickly begins his vengeful quest to find his brother's killer. Thus, the movie strives for a film noir quality yet falls far short of its goal. The script is unconvincing, the actors are mostly mediocre and over-act, and the direction is amateurish and low-quality. Trust me, I'm one of Robert De Niro's biggest fans, and I strongly suggest you skip this one!
Rating:
Summary: This is just.... bad
Review: I am not one to waste my time by writing reviews here, but after watching "The Swap", I feel it is my duty as a fellow human being to warn you of how this movie will utterly suck the life-force out of you without mercy. By simply reading the reviews of others here, you can pretty much get an idea of what you will expect should you happen to make the decision of buying or renting it.However, what I would like to touch on is of how disappointed I am in the desperate attempts on behalf of the distribution / marketing company to get fellow DeNiro fans out there to actually buy this movie....
1) "Never judge a book by its cover"... how true that is when it comes to this movie. They market the DVD cover with a somewhat recent 1990's portrait of DeNiro, when in fact, this film was obviously made in the mid-late 70's (yes, the movie was not even properly dated).
2) DVD features??... there were none, despite what the backcover claims. Simply an introduction screen with the large words "Play Movie" as your *only* option.
3) The movie synopsis is very, very misleading in wanting you to think that DeNiro is the main star, when in reality, his total screen time (initial scenes and flashbacks) total less than 10 or so minutes. So, having said that... shame on you, Gemstone Entertainment. Shame on you for your desperate attempts to mislead individuals out of their money. With shady marketing practices such as this, I would not be surprised to see your company go down the drain someday soon.
Rating:
Summary: This is just.... bad
Review: I am not one to waste my time by writing reviews here, but after watching "The Swap", I feel it is my duty as a fellow human being to warn you of how this movie will utterly suck the life-force out of you without mercy. By simply reading the reviews of others here, you can pretty much get an idea of what you will expect should you happen to make the decision of buying or renting it. However, what I would like to touch on is of how disappointed I am in the desperate attempts on behalf of the distribution / marketing company to get fellow DeNiro fans out there to actually buy this movie....
1) "Never judge a book by its cover"... how true that is when it comes to this movie. They market the DVD cover with a somewhat recent 1990's portrait of DeNiro, when in fact, this film was obviously made in the mid-late 70's (yes, the movie was not even properly dated).
2) DVD features??... there were none, despite what the backcover claims. Simply an introduction screen with the large words "Play Movie" as your *only* option.
3) The movie synopsis is very, very misleading in wanting you to think that DeNiro is the main star, when in reality, his total screen time (initial scenes and flashbacks) total less than 10 or so minutes. So, having said that... shame on you, Gemstone Entertainment. Shame on you for your desperate attempts to mislead individuals out of their money. With shady marketing practices such as this, I would not be surprised to see your company go down the drain someday soon.
Rating:
Summary: It's not woth it!
Review: I bought the video because of a very misleading advertisement for this film. I am a great DeNiro fan, but this was terrible. The picture on the box leads you to believe this movie was made some time in the 1980's - it was made in 1969. The story synopsis is not only wrong, but it names DeNiro's character Johnny (possibly confusing it with his character in Mean Streets), but his name is Sammy, and he dies in the first scene, only to return in flashbacks. The acting is terrible, the story is terrible. If your looking for an old DeNiro movie, get Mean Streets, this one is not worth your time or money!
Rating:
Summary: dissatisfied
Review: I had the same experience as Jay. I bought the crummy dvd for $5.88 at freakin' walmart. I don't know what the hell I was thinking. The dvd box was very misleading saying it had certain features. It looked like the dvd had been dubbed and the film quality sucked. Every actor makes a bad choice at least once in their career and this was De Niro's. He's my all-time fave actor but this movie was the pits. The quality of it was comparable to that of a low budget 70's porn.
Rating: 
Summary: A great story
Review: I have seen "the swap" a long time ago... Since then, I have tried to buy it, because I loved the story and also the filmtrack.
Rating:
Summary: Swap, The
Review: I have to give this movie one star to get this review posted. This movie doesn't deserve a star, it deserves a rotting lemon. This movie ranks up there with the Blair Witch Project as being a terrible movie. I got suckered in by this one. Let's see, actors sucked, plot sucked, quality sucked and now my opinion of John Broderick and Gemstone Entertainment has lowered itself into the SUCK relm. They should send me a check for my purchase price and pain and suffering. Does anyone know what the ending was supposed to mean? I fell asleep:(
Rating:
Summary: misleading
Review: I love de niro, and I love movies from all genres and all time periods but this movie was awful. I bought it because I found it for 5.88 and a lot of places didn't have it in their warehouse so I figured it might be rare. The box of the dvd makes it out to be a de niro film which its not. After the first scene when he is killed within the first 3 minutes I looked at the case to see if De niro was a star. The story line is awful, right from the beginning you know what will happen in the end and if you do watch this movie pay attention to the end it just isn't real. The last 15 minutes is absurd. The dvd case said there was extra features such as a trivia, filmography and biographies there wasn't even a scene selection area. The movie quality looks like it came straight from a vhs and and the sound is awful. If you are a de niro fan and you want to see this movie go for it, but just know what its actually like and don't go by the box cover.
Rating:
Summary: Erm, not good.
Review: I totally agree with the reviewer below - this movie is just... bad. But, if you're a De Niro fan, I'd recommend renting it just to see one of his early performances (it was originally filmed in 1969). You can find it at Blockbuster.
Rating:
Summary: dissatisfied
Review: In this movie a newly released felon is searching for the killer of his porno directing brother. It should have been the search for some acting lessons. The plot left you not caring who the murderer was, and the anticlimatic ending made you want to say, "Who financed this and I'm glad it did not kill De Niro's career."
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