Though it aspires to be something like The Usual Suspects and other modern film noirs, Red Herring doesn't quite swim in that school. Shot slickly on a small-fish budget, the title is maybe worth netting as a second-tier pulp/crime diversion for your public library patrons.
In Las Vegas, a local shady type is found shot to death with his entourage. Circumstances point to another sketchy tycoon, Damon Ridell (Chyna McCoy), fresh off a dirty tech deal involving the Russian mafia. Vegas top cop Jack Adamson (Robert Scott Howard) is the investigating officer—but he's also a best friend of suspect Ridell. Adamson is forced to partner up with Mason White (G. Eric Miles) a lawman long determined to get the goods on Ridell.
The busy intro makes viewers feel as though they walked in late and missed something, but the story resolves as a series of mysterious killings of people close to Ridell, who continues asserting his innocence. Adamson fixates that the murderer here is a legendary underworld assassin called Bluescreen (yes a Microsoft reference), who in fright-masked inserts, does invoke a boogeyman/Keyser Soze aura. Does Bluescreen exist? And who hired him (her?) to carry out the slayings?
In spots, Red Herring works nicely under director Ousa Khun (even if the electronic-simulated orchestral score gets pretty heavy-handed). Dialogue is intelligent, and a cast of largely unfamiliar faces performs well. Genre fans might recognize Vincent Pastore, a mobster-specialty character actor portraying, of course, a Sicilian hard guy, and there's a cameo by former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. But it all hinges on the twist at the end surrounding the identity of Bluescreen, which, simply, doesn't make too much sense, other than playing gotcha! with invested crime-buff viewers.
In the moody atmosphere of death, betrayal, and impending danger, one might note violence/sex/profanity barely touches PG-13 level (in yesteryear's B-grad thrillers the guys made gratuitous strip-club visits; these mugs make gratuitous mixed-martial-arts gym visits). The lack of graphic R-rated content might deem Red Herring a tempting catch for cautious buyers in mainstream-entertainment collections. Otherwise, optional for mystery, crime, and drama film collections in public libraries.