Ready 2 Die

I caught this movie on Netflix the other night and decided to write a review after thinking about it for a few days. I am always interested in films that take place in the hood and the cover caught my eye.

Obviously this is a small budget film and some of the special effects leave something to be desired. However, the actors do a good job in their respective roles. The pacing is a bit uneven and lags at times but overall the action sequences are pretty solid.

I liked the stylized, gritty look of the film it kind of reminds me of the look of "Man On Fire" only on a smaller budget.

Not to give too much of the plot a way, the story is about a group of friends, some ex-military, who decide to rob a bank. The film uses flashbacks to establish the backstory of each character to explain what got them to this point in their lives.

If you are in to "urban gangster" films this one should be in your library.

I was looking for a new crime filled movie (lets admit it gangster flicks are always a blast) when I stumbled across Ready 2 Die. The plot is pretty straight forward with a bank robbery gone wrong as they are trying to get somewhere safe after stealing quite a load of money. Of course the cops are after them as you would expect but to top that off they also have to avoid rival gang members who want the money for themselves. The characters within aren't people you are going to necessarily like but if you love to watch people getting away with (quite literally) murder this is a joyride you aren't going to want to get off of.

The plot is a pretty standard robbery flick with a low budget but but the action really stood out as gritty and fun. Honestly the budget is what hurt this film as if the filmmakers had more to put into the effects I really could see this as something that could stand out. As it is if you are in the mood for some pure violent fun this one would be worth your time!

Crime movies about bank robbery's are probably one of my favourite to watch so when I watched the trailer for Ready 2 Die I put it on my to watch list and got a copy the following weekend.

Right from the start I found the action scenes to be exciting a gang of misfits in the process of a bank robbery that goes wrong as a viewer you are put straight into the action but at the same time we start to understand the background of the characters and how this situation evolved.

I can't say to much about what happens next as I don't want to spoil the plot for anyone but you won't be disappointed it has guns, fast cars, police chases, sexy women, money and murder to keep you entertained.

For a low budget film it's put together very well, the actors gave a credible, convincing performance I especially enjoyed Bless May's performance and think he has a good chance of furthering his career if he keeps making decent films. But the biggest credit has to be to the director and writer John Azpilicueta putting together this movie must have been a challenge and he pulled it off I hope he is given some bigger projects in the future and I look forward to watching his next piece of work.

The first thing that strikes me about Ready 2 Die is how well director John Azpilicueta utilizes limited resources and makes this feel like it had a much bigger budget than it probably did. The cinematographer in particular places you right in the action, as if you're a character in the film getting pulled through the action. This documentary feel was a smart choice for the story, as it ups the intensity, especially in the action scenes (which include one of the best car chase sequences I've seen in a long time). Not all of the acting is top notch, and there are some sound problems that would prevent this film from landing a perfect score, but there's enough good about it that it ranks as "very good- excellent" and is more than worth the watch.

But... Unfortunately I didn't and stuck around for the remaining 59 minutes.

Ready To Die is a classic Notorious BIG album, but Ready 2 Die (with a oh so clever change from the word 'to' to the number 2 instead, to signify this movie is 'hood' if there was any doubters who'd think otherwise, because that's how they do it in the hood, spell words wrong and type numbers that could replace words etc) will never become a classic... Anything... Not even a classic Asylum movie.

TBH, I don't think Asylum actually financed this movie cause it feels and looks really low budget, and considering how low budget Asylum's usual movies are you know how ridiculously low budget this must be right?

I think it's safe to say that they spend more money on getting a cool poster than they did on (trying but failing) to make a cool movie.

The movie is basically a deadly game of hide and seek about a group of robbers trying to hide with their new found wealth from gang-bangers with guns trying to steal their riches (how dare they?) and cops with arrest- warrants.

That might sound like fun, but it really isn't, and the acting is terrible, sure the actors might look the part with most of the cast playing moral-free latino gang-bangers, some to the point where I wonder if they didn't hire real gang-bangers in some of the roles... Cause they sure enough didn't hire real actors.

Fun fact: the f-word is used 187 times... per scene.

I mean I've seen Noel G in other movies where he was alright but not in this one though.

Yeah don't waste your time with this one, it's not worth it.

To paraphrase Jay-Z: "Like I told you to watch Ready 2 Die, No... Hov did that, so hopefully you don't have to go through that"