Blowback

How can Tibor Takacs, a seasoned director with almost 50 directing credits, give us this type of nonsense? For starters, he failed miserably in directing his cast. Most held their own, considering, but many needed casting direction to show some emotions in their dialogue or facial expressions in most of the scenes. Michele Plaia's acting was stale and unconvincing, but a good director can easily direct even an amateur 5 year old actor with ease, so that's all on him. Takas also dragged out too many scenes, and failed with his slow pacing, that the normally 93 min runtime felt much longer.

Then you have four writers giving us a cliched screenplay, with some cringeworthy scenes, especially the dialogue in the meet-up at the casino at the very end. Even the Italian mobsters were hilariously over-cliched with some very cheesy dialogue. A fifth grade drama class could've come up with better dialogue.

It's too bad, because although not revolutionary, the story had some great ideas. Aside from all that, you have your typical B film score - loud and overbearing, but surprisingly the cinematography wasn't too bad. If you're a fan of Louis Mandylor, Randy Couture or Cam Gigandet, you may still enjoy this - if there's nothing else to watch. For me, it's a generous 5/10.

From cast to acting to the story, it was B rated all the way.

We get to see a 2nd copy of Jason Statham, a 2nd copy of Paul Walker and Miami Vice cops (Don Johnson & Philip Michael Thomas) look alikes?

Quite frankly, I wish I had wasted my 90 minutes on doing something else?

The movie could have used a better script and character journeys. A lot of these reviews knock the script which is true but the acting isn't bad. Michele Plaia is a fresh new talent and a baddie with some great range. Cam Gigandet was solid for most of the movie. I enjoyed the love triangle and would have liked to see more of the relationships driving the movie direction.

The premise is an ex-con's daughter is in the hospital with some mystery ailment. Her dad needs money so he orchestrates a bank robbery. The job goes off without a hitch. His crew double crosses him and he's left for dead. He survives and revenge follows.

Movies usually have some point or message or reason for their existence. This movie offers nothing. Before the robbery a nurse told him his daughter would be cared for regardless of his ability to pay. So much for the premise. The guy committed armed robbery, so we sure as heck aren't rooting for him. He pursues revenge on members of his crew (no spoilers here) and we're not rooting for them, either. The police are trying to catch them, and we desperately want to root for them. Except the good guys are cardboard cutouts who could have been named Officer One, Officer Two for all we know about them.

Randy Coutour and his girlfriend were both laughably bad. The rest of the performances were Oscar worthy in comparison.

What is terrible is the movie begins with a thirty minute flashback of the robbery. Problem is the details of the robbery are entirely inconsequential. It could have been condensed into two sentences without impacting the plot. By the time the actual plot kicks in, it's been nearly an hour of pointless activity on screen. The final hour is slightly more engaging, but the director who couldn't make armed robbery interesting likewise couldn't make revenge interesting.

Four stars because I didn't turn it off. No additional stars because this is not a good movie.

A B-rated action flick that was simply lacking. The movie had potential but simply fails to deliver. The acting for the most part was mediocre at best, although the protagonist lead delivered better than most. Although Couture is not a great actor by any means he simply falls flat in this movie. The script is below par but the dialogue comes across as mostly believable. The cinematography was fine. Directing was lacking. Nothing new in terms of a story - a guy with a past doing the wrong things for the right reasons. Given the cast the movie certainly could have delivered more. Overall it is watchable, but very forgettable.