Amber (Jenna Dewan) and Duke (Brian Geraghty of I Know Who Killed Me) are planning on getting engaged, but they don't want to start their new life together in the kind of debt they are currently in. Duke is a vet from the Iraq war who had trouble adjusting to civilian life when he first came back. After assaulting a state trooper, he was put away for several years and got out on good behavior. Currently, he is on probation and having a lot of trouble finding steady work because of it.
To make matters worse, the gang that lives just down the street seems to love messing with and stealing from our two main characters. One day, Duke decides he has had enough and charges into the apartment building, guns blazing. He stumbles upon a duffle bag full of money and steals it from the gang. With their new found wealth, Duke and Amber decide to leave their life behind, get married and use the money to turn their luck around.
Meanwhile, the money's owner, a dirty DEA official named Pollen (Christian Slater) and his partner Gault (Luce Rains) have shown up at the aforementioned gang's home base only to find the money stolen. Killing off the gang members and claiming it was Amber and Duke, Pollen and Gault start their quest to find the other two.
The newlyweds start their new life by checking out some new homes being built in a brand new desert-vista neighborhood and taking their chances in the casinos. Besides the early scene with the gangsters, there are a few other times when it becomes obvious that Duke is very protective of his girl. When the couple basically decide on a house and sit down ready to pay for it in cash (yes, they took a lot of money), Duke calls the deal off when he sees just how the salesman is looking at Amber.
While staying at the casino and making a good bit of profit, Pollen finally finds both the couple and his drug money. A shootout occurs in the hotel portion of the casino, but both Amber and Duke make it out. But Pollen's insistence that this pair is behind the shooting and the previously reported attack that happened earlier in the film doesn't sit quite right for the local law enforcement agents Alice (Tara Summers) and Morton (Craig Sheffer). Most of the movie from this point on is Amber and Duke being followed by Pollen and Gault who are in turn being followed by Alice and Morton. Our main couple is determined to give back the money (not what they won at the casinos, but the original investment), while the dirty cops plan on taking them out as soon as the money is secure, meanwhile the good cops are just trying to figure out exactly what is going on.
Needless to say, the movie comes to a showdown between all three pairs. I don't want to spoil the ending, so I won't say exactly how it goes down. Suffice it to say it is a very fitting end (and better than the alternate ending in the special features). While many parts of this film feel a bit contrived, it was overall entertaining and Christan Slater does an adequate job playing the dirty cop. At most, the movie is worth a rent or a couple of hours time on a premium channel.
