Dead Reckoning

This movie is exactly like a grade 5 student's A/V essay, and the student get's an F. It's so awful that you feel badly for the actors, actors who will not be adding this catastrophe to their resumes.

Tillie (India Eisley) is a troubled girl on Nantucket Island. Her parents had recently been killed in a plane crash. She falls for cab driver Niko (K.J. Apa). The problem is his murderous brother Marco (Scott Adkins). Agent Cantrell (James Remar) is on the case.

Niko is a problematic character. K.J. plays him like a nice guy. I buy his inner conflict with his brother but he tries to be the good guy. This apparently is inspired by the Boston Marathon bombers. The problem is that this movie is nowhere near sophisticated enough to do justice to the complexity of human relationships. There are awkward turns here with Niko. I don't buy his character even without the inspiration.

This film was such a mess I had to look up the director to see what else he has done. The first film he directed was "Romeo Must Die", which I liked. After that, it was a string of B-level (at best) action movies with B-level (at best) actors. Then came this mess.

There is just so much wrong with this movie. The "revenge" angle made no sense, since it was directed at the wrong people by the bad guys. The dialogue was awkward, laughable at times. The acting was uninspired. It was like this was thrown together in a few days just to try to make some money. Even the subtitles on the DVD are messed up. At one point we see a small airport. The subtitles say "(helicopter chopping)". Then into the frame comes a single-engine small airplane making a lot of noise. No helicopter in sight. There are other mistakes in the subtitles, too.

It's said here that this movie was "A thriller inspired by the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013". Other than there being two brothers, there was no similarity. It was just like any number of other "terrorist" movies. If I was a survivor of that event, or a family member affected by it, I'd be insulted by the comparison.

The only saving grace for me was India Eisley. I consider her to be utterly gorgeous. An absolute beauty. Stunning. I could watch her sit and read a book for an hour and half.

Come to think of it, that would have been better than this movie was.

ALTAR ROCK, renamed DEAD RECKONING to make it more commercial, is a very boring drama/thriller supposedly based on the Boston Marathon bombings. It plays out like a family drama for the most part with a few action bits added to the mix. The director did ROMEO MUST DIE and DOOM all those years ago and appears to have lost the basics of film-making in the interim period. Cast-wise, we're in for a wooden time with the exception of Scott Adkins, making the most of his small bad guy role.

Scott Adkins films are generally a bit corny and daft and this is no different. I think he's successfully carved out his own niche in the movie business. I'll rate it as a Scott Adkins film. Still, not the best (of his).