I knew it was a MA film, but I didn't expect to get bombarded by every foul joke in the English dictionary for middleschoolers. I remember being that way myself as a child, but I never, NEVER would've tried to assert myself that way to an adult for fear of real consequence, and mind you I'm not a geezer at all.
This film gets 3 stars - 1 for the collective performances of the actors, 1 for the exceedingly few funny lines, and 1 for employing the great people who do the actual film making.
Problem is this tired, old, regurgitated script. Somebody at Netflix is doing way too much cocaine to greenlight this kind of stuff. There are no surprises in this movie, with retreads of the same beats in so many other more competently executed buddy cop movies. Granted, there are a few honest funny scenes. But whoever wrote this has a very misguided morale compass. This film doesn't help the case for single-parenthood. There's a mother who's complicit with her son running gambit over his education, their relationship, and her own sex life. A child who (while accurate that most 12 year old boys talk mad smack with no adults around) exists in a world without direct consequences for his actions and behavior. A script which relies on it's only trick - shocking you with all the obscenities and filth it can sling in your face. And then there's the promoting of racial segregation and prejudice towards females or any race who isn't black.
It suffers from lazy writing and poor judgement. This film ends exactly how you expect it to. There is nothing redeemable to extract, no laughs that are memorable, not even cheap entertainment. It's just so bad that it manages to make mindless entertainment a chore. That's not an easy thing to accomplish, or wear as an accolade.
In all honesty, I'venever wanted to gut punch a child harder in my life. Personally, any child who wants to buck up and try and pass them selves off as an adult is gonna get treated as such by me. There is some reason in the script as to why the main character doesn't do so, but in reality, Helms' character would've most likely resorted to the treatment he received prior in life and done worse to the gobbly little oaf.
Enjoy it if you don't mind being in the bottom 15 percentile of thinking beings on this planet. Or if you think morality and ethics are malleable tissue to be stretched to the brink. Or if you have reached the point in your life where you accept that you are poor ilk and will forever remain such.
This is a tasteless film, and I find myself to be pretty distasteful in my own jokes and muses if that says anything.
