The Bill Collector

Friday night - kids are out on town for some fun and wife has gone to bed early and being bored I picked up a movie for myself.

Found "Mr.Machete" on the cover and expected some action and good relaxation to some snacks and a beer. Didn't expect much - but halfway through the movie I wondered why this movie was released in September 2010 and there was not more than one more review until today.

I found out pretty soon as I was dozing off and took breaks to the bathroom and loading up on some more beer.

Is this some covert promotion for what is a scam anyway? "Jesus". The movie had not even finished and I was typing these notes as it was ending. It was so boring and lame that I wanted a refund from Blockbuster! The actors are all B-actors and the owner of the company can not even fake a cry when he pretends that his wife is going to leave him, why he needs a 3 weeks vacation to turn his marriage around. The manager of the office who is doing well is hated by all the employees gets to run the office while the boss is away.

"Mr. Machete" - Mexican scarface B-actor comes along and wants "his money back" that the manager owes him from having skipped town years ago when he started a restaurant that failed.

Being the boss for 3 weeks - he fires all the regular crew and takes in a bunch of homeless people that he finds on the Jesus freak mission. They can not even read or write and magically they learn that over some days and turns into a success! Collects the $150,000 in pennies to the dollar collections and takes the cash to the gangster who he owes the money. He gets killed by a drive by shooting and . . . .

What is wrong with this director? Are they smoking crack in Hollywood and then make a movie of some fantasies? Or is this what America is heading for? "Rebuilding America with homeless people who runs Wallstreet when it has all crashed"? I didn't expect anything out of this movie but it just really got me upset thinking that some fake Jesus activity is going to set everything straight. The first review person needs to wake up and not be so lame. The movie was "released" 6 months ago and first now it was out on DVD? Oh boy! It should NEVER been have released and those actors should PAY for letting us sit through such meaningless Jesus brainwashing crap! This flick wasted 90 minutes of my life!

First the positive things: The main actor does a solid job, the musical score did not bother me, and not me but my friend paid for the rental DVD... :o) Okay, the story isn't great but it is not as idiotic as some blockbuster's storyline when broken down. But I don't think anyone expected Hollywoods next genius behind this script.

Apart from that, I was downright shocked by how badly this movie fails in many places. The acting of many supporting roles was hurtful at times, as was the script. The latter can be explained by trying to balance between the two genres of Comedy and Drama. This is a very hard path to take, even for more gifted movie makers, and this movie is neither a drama nor a (funny) comedy.

The biggest problem I had with the movie though, is, that is seems like a genuine Hollywood movie, with known actors in the cast and some marketing. But it looks by far worse than most film school graduate films. It is poorly acted, poorly directed, and very, very poorly edited. In any one minute of the film I (as an amateur) could probably point out a no-go for a professional movie.

I was lying in a hospital bed and really had nothing better to do, but I switched off the DVD 15 minutes before the end, and I really try to give movies an honest shot by watching them to the very end.

Don't waste your time watching this one, not even on TV! There are so many better movies around!

My business is Accounts Receivable and I have delivered collection training in 25 different countries over the same number of years. I viewed this film different than most, not just as entertainment, but as enter train ment. Many jokes are made in the business of receivables of collecting with a baseball bat and a gun. However, the most effective techniques used in the movie, by those who had once been down and out themselves was 'listening' and 'empathy'. It is worth viewing the film just to enjoy the approach used by the former literature professor, now debt collector, quoting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's, "The Villiage Blacksmith". The film is about redemption, but to me, not so much the main character, but all of us, who but for fortune could be in the same situation as the clients of 'Lump Sum Collections'. Could some of the acting have been richer or more nuanced. I suppose so, but don't let that get in the way of your enjoyment and the message.

Review: I got totally conned with this movie. After seeing the poster for the film, I thought that it was going to be about Danny Trejo, going around kicking ass, but he is hardly in the movie. Its about a very terrible actor who is in debt with Trejo and it shows him doing different things to get the money. The whole film seems like it was filmed on a cheap camera and all of the actors are REALLY bad. The storyline was badly written and the director was clearly making it up as he went along. Trejo was obviously used for the distribution. This is definitely the worse film that I have seen this year.

Round-Up: Gary Moore, who is the main actor in this movie, hasn't been in any movies that anyone would recognise, which is not surprising after seeing his acting skills in this movie, which is full of Z Class actors. I was hoping for a bit of action, judging by the poster, but I was terribly disappointed. Danny Trejo either took the movie for the pay day or as a favour to the director, who shouldn't put this film on his filmography out of shear embarrassment. stay away from this film.....

I don't recommend this movie to anyone because it is totally rubbish. 1/10

The movie "The Bill Collector" was labeled as a comedy and drama, but the movie was sort of stuck in between the two, not really punching through in either genre. The movie wasn't funny enough to actually be a comedy, nor was the drama in the movie believable enough to land the movie on the drama shelf.

The storyline is simple enough, Lorenzo is in a heap of money dept to Frankie, and have to the end of the month to come up with the amount. Nothing new here, and the story seems plausible enough. However, the movie is portrayed in a way that you never really get yourself fully into the story, because there weren't any laughs along the way, and the drama in the movie was very poor and almost non-existent.

As for the cast, well they had a good enough cast on the list. And Gary Moore (playing Lorenzo) actually did a good job, as he have this weird charm to him. And, of course, Danny Trejo (playing Frankie) is always a good face for a bad guy in movies. And the rest of the cast also did good enough jobs with their roles. Of course, don't expect any award-winning performances here.

Personally, I never really bought into the storyline because I was bored out of my mind. I was expecting more from the movie, especially because it was labeled as a comedy and drama. But as I said above, it was hard to get into those two genres, because the movie failed in both aspects.

There are far better comedies available, and "The Bill Collector" might be good if you have absolutely nothing better to do on a slow evening. The low rating I am handing "The Bill Collector" is because it took forever to get nowhere, and it failed to entertain while trying to get you there.