Crypto

Crypto (2019) is fairly standard DTV fare. The script tosses around a lot of buzz words about crypto currencies and money laundering. The plot involves money laundering, Russian mobsters, multi-million-dollar paintings that look as if they could have been mass-produced in a factory in Mexico alongside the paintings on velvet, murder, extortion, embezzlement, the dark web, kidnapping, and other nefarious activities, none of which makes much sense. The script offers a few clever lines of dialogue and a lot of well-worn tropes. Performances are often a bit wooden, but the camera is generally rock steady.

One problem is that financial audits, a significant element in the film, are simply not visually interesting. The Accountant made them more visual with Wolff (Ben Affleck) scrawling numbers all over the conference room windows. Lone Star made Sam's (Chris Cooper) research more interesting with cryptic notes about various people killed by Sheriff Wade (Kris Kristofferson). But this film takes a less creative approach.

The scene in Pulp Fiction in which Vincent Vega (John Travolta) injected heroin was visceral and a bit cringeworthy. A scene of drug use in Crypto shows how much talent it takes to film such a scene effectively.

The film is rated R, although it seems tame enough for primetime television. The violence is low-key. The one sex scene involves a woman wearing a brassiere that seems modest enough to wear at the beach without attracting notice.

Several scenes involving harvesting potatoes don't seem at all realistic, even to a city boy like myself. In one scene, Martin Senior (Kurt Russell) harrows a field which supposedly hasn't been harvested. He has a nice John Deere tractor, but can't afford even a simple potato harvester for a farm worth over a million dollars, which means it is probably over 400 acres. The potato stalks are missing. How they removed the stalks without harvesting the potatoes is the biggest mystery in the film. But three guys manage to harvest 400 acres of potatoes in an afternoon. The potatoes have no dirt clinging to them when they are harvested. It really looks as if somebody took a couple of sacks of potatoes and covered them with a little dirt in a freshly ploughed field. If harvesting potatoes is a significant plot element, producers really need to schedule production in the fall, rather than the spring.

Some of the minor roles are performed well and eclipse the major roles. Kudos to Jill Hennessy, Joseph Siprut, Malaya Rivera Drew (although major demerits for the bedroom scene), Marsha Dietlein, and Luke Hemsworth.

The film is watchable, but lends itself to multitasking. Without fight scenes (other than a television caliber shootout), chases, pyrotechnics or special effects, the film needs a strong script. This one seems a couple of re-writes short of completion.

I found this movie entertaining. The story of an estranged son who comes back to his hometown as an auditor, to uncover some crooked financial matters. There he finds family again, healing wounds of a painful past and rediscovering his father, brother, his roots. The actor mumbles with a horse face grin because it's part of the character. Nothing out of this world but then not as bad as some people say it is.

I was really hoping that this movie would be educational for many people but unfortunately it will paint a negative image for crypto in general...that crypto is used for shady purposes like drugs, prostitution, porn and money laundering. But the fact is that the total market cap of the entire crypto market at the moment (April 2019) is around $134 billion and the banks have been FINED since 2008 for an of $243 BILLION!!! The main problem is that majority of the people don't understand how the monetary system works and what is broken in our current system and what exactly crypto is trying to fix. Only if people could understand or educate themselves about it, poorly realized movies like these wouldn't fool us about crypto anymore!

I get that all three writers are amateurs, but didn't the producers at least pick up on the need for a fine tune/re-write of this convoluted mess of a script?

There's little story that actually makes any sense amongst a ton of buzz words no one will understand in the entire 105 mins of this film, and for that length of time, certainly some unnecessary scenes could've been omitted and others (including the buzz word scenes) elaborated upon. It was never made clear what Martins full duty was, or why he left the big city head office, and so on. It's as if a 5+ hour decent screenplay was shredded, and random pieces put together to total the final runtime. I could go on and on, but it's such a shame no one invested in a seasoned screenwriter to at least fine tune the script, as this production had many decent values to it. The pacing was also slow for my liking, and this film needed to be trimmed down to 90 mins (with a proper script) or played back at 1.2x speed.

The directing/camera work was well executed. The acting by all leads was spot on and convincing, but casting Beau Knapp as Martin was another big mistake. He didn't suit that role/character, and his acting was way too bland. He'd been better off being cast as one of the thugs, instead of pretty much sleeping in his suit trying to act like a white collar exec.

The score was too outstanding for this film... I mean top notch, and created some great tension and suspense, but seemed overbearing next to the convoluted plot.

Aside from that, unless you have any idea about crypto currency and forensic accounting (luckily I do, and I was still confused), you'll lose interest in this film pretty fast.

Really too bad considering everything else was done really well. Sadly, it's only a generous 6/10 from me.

Despite the unknown leading characters this is quite a decent thriller,with good acting and a constant eerie suspense, which is quite mesmerizing. Definitely better than the Imdb rating would suggest.

The story is simple. A young employee working for a big corporation discovers a money laundering scheme. Now unknown criminal forces are out to get him. Will he survive?

Although Kurt Russell only plays quite a small supporting role, his role stands out and his role is quite meaningful to the story. Acting in general, despite a lot of unknown actors, is quite good to my pleasant surprise.

Recommended for the fans of smart and eerie thrillers, who dont want to see flashy action scenes, but who value suspense and a dark, ominous mood above all else.

Any bad? It is a slow burning thriller. Nothing much happens at the start. Character development is more important than shocking action scenes. For those who dont like that, this probably will not be your cup of tea...