A Score to Settle

People tend to jump on the hate train too quickly that they fail to see that this movie had great potential. If only they had a director that knows what he is doing, plus with the budget they had. This is not a bad movie BUT there were some pretty bad moments that pretty much ruined it. This is not an action film but is centered around the Nick's character. So dont expect guns-blazing-mindless-action. Its really not that bad.

I won't reveal anything, but the movie did keep my attention (and I tend to be a little restless). A few things didn't make sense until the end...so hang in there and watch the whole thing before you pass judgement. It's a bit of a dark gritty movie - so be prepared for some shootem' up gory stuff. But if that doesn't bother you, it's fine. I liked Nicolas Cage - he's very versatile and believable.

Film tries to be deep and clever with a "plot twist" that anyone with eyes sees coming from a mile away. Cliches of course abound, so expect to see all the generic quotes and tropes you've seen/ heard before. The only twist being that this film blurs the genres of films it steals it's quotes from.

All of this said is it a terrible film? No. It's ok. Just about. Watchable if you're not really paying attention.

Also, whatever you do, don't question the timelines, e.g. how a young adult can go to jail for 19 years but come out an old man.

Anyway, the terrible cliches, inconsistencies in timelines (forcibly injected so the characters fit the proper cliches), and a pretty average script let this film down.

5/10

CF

Nicolas Cage is still a great actor. just gotta find the right movie to act in.

For starters, all the 1's are just bone-head amateur reviews. This film - all things considered, is a solid 7/10, and here's why:

It's clearly a low budget B-grade film. You have a novice director (only his 2nd full length feature film, other 4 are shorts and TV films), Shawn Ku, who did a fairly decent job (remember, for a novice filmmaker) with the camera, but needed work on directing his cast (except Cage, who was awesome on his own). Then you have a great (conceptual) story, that was written by a totally green newbie writer, John Stuart Newman, in his 2nd full length feature film. Yes there were some plot issues, and yes the slow pacing was atrocious that the 103 min length felt ridiculously long. But nevertheless, Nicolas Cage kept this film afloat, with some help from Benjamin Bratt (who certainly needed better direction in the beginning).

If this film was properly edited and the pacing sped up 1.5x, it would have been an entirely different (much better) viewing experience. The score was decent and the cinematography on point. It's a shame the producers didn't decide to edit this better, because Cage deserved better for his performance. Nevertheless, rating this film based on its own production merits and value, it's a solid 7/10 from me. I still enjoyed it, but wanted more.