Criminal Activities

No spoilers!

This is a fairly basic Hollywood story of how things take a turn south really fast in peoples lives and keep getting worse by the minute. I've always liked "gangster" movies like this, kinda simple but yet funny characters and unexpected twists you really cannot predict. It's the small things that can make an average movie turn in to a good one and this did that for me. About half of it is just plain average but then things start to happen so don't stop watching.

The writing and characters have clear influences from Tarantinos Pulp Fiction, Guy Ritchie's Snatch(and others) and the ending is quite "Usual Suspect's" type but so what if we've seen it before, it still works. For it's budget I'm happy with what I saw.

Too much of movies these days throw money away in effects and other useless crap, they still haven't learned that a billion dollars worth of effects won't make a bad script good. Save that money Hollywood and make a hundred of these types instead. Put the money towards good writers and casting and that will save you a lot.. and make a better movies at the same time.

A good script! Love the plottwists.

The acting however is a little less than expected and that makes me give the movie a 6 and not more.

"Sometimes what looks like a dead end to a dire situation can be an opportunity." After meeting at an old classmates funeral four friends begin to reconnect. When they hatch a plan to play the stock market for a sure thing that will make them all millionaires they jump at the chance. When things go wrong they not only lose their money but they find out that one of them borrowed money from the mob. Now, left with no other choice they must make a deal in order to survive. I love mob movies and was looking forward to this. This is not the type of mob movie I was hoping for. The movies is essentially a kidnapping and little by little more truth is uncovered. The movie isn't that bad and does keep you watching but it was a little slow and not really what I was expecting it to be. The acting is really good, even though it is hard to buy Travolta as a mob boss. This is a decent one time watch movie but nothing all that amazing and nothing I think I would watch again. Overall, good but nothing to scream about. I give this a B.

Directed by Jackie Earle Haley, "Criminal Activities" from 2015 is about four high school friends - Zack, Noah, Warren, and Bryce (Michael Pitt, Dan Stevens, Rob Brown, Christopher Abbott, who meet up after the funeral of their friend Matthew.

Warren tells them about a stock that's about to go up - he has insider trading info - and the agent who has been stockpiling the stock is getting nervous about being caught and needs to dump his shares. He wants $200,000. Noah says he can get it.

The stock tanks and wipes out the investment. Unfortunately, Noah neglected to tell him the money came from a mobster, Eddie (John Travolta) and he wants repayment of $400,000 - accrued interest.

He will wipe the slate clean if they will help him with a problem he's having - kidnap the brother of the man who kidnapped his niece so that he can get her back.

Boy could this have been better. It's a complicated story, and a good one, but the script and direction aren't strong enough to carry it. It's similar to many other films of today with its surprises, but at the end of the film I was left confused about certain money issues.

There is an homage to Pulp Fiction with the presence of Travolta and the guys' initial meeting at the Royale. And it has gross violence, just like Tarantino. It's just not Tarantino.

The acting is uneven with some good performances. Travolta does a great job, but earth to Travolta: if you're bald, shave your head and/or wear an expensive hairpiece, and stop looking like a chimpanzee with that hairline. It's so distracting.

The director, Jackie Earle Haley, hands in a good performance, as do Pitt, Edi Gathegi, Pitt, and Stevens.

Just finished the movie, and I was captivated the whole time. I was surprised to see that the entire cast put together a very convincing performance. The script and plot were also clever, and somewhat original for a change (which was refreshing to see). It did seem a little Tarantino-esque with some of the music, dialog, and situation. But I guess if you're going to model your work after anyone, QT is probably the guy to go with.

Overall I enjoyed the movie, and I do recommend checking it out. It probably is not for everybody but if you are a fan of Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino's work, I imagine you will probably enjoy this too. Jackie Earl Haley did a fine job in his directorial debut, and I look forward to seeing more of his work.

7.5/10