Painkiller

This is a miserable dumbfest of a movie. A guy who holds the doctors responsible for his daughter ODing on whatever drug they are talking about here. Something more potent than fentanyl is what I got. And Yes, Fentanyl being used by addicts is horrible but so was this movie!!!

So dude goes around shooting CEO's and Doctors and talking about the crisis he holds a radio show to talk about. For about 90 minutes.

And the funny part is all the victims are addicts themselves and have whores for wives or girlfriends.

Just boring. 3/10.

What a horrible mess.

Based on Barry Meier's book Painkiller and Patrick Keefe's Empire of pain, this movie gets just about everything wrong. Addiction. Greed. The Sacklers. How they lit the fire of the epidemic.

Worse, they throw in new peripheral characters to move the story.

This movie misses the point on how the Sacklers operated.

Matthew Broderick is wasted. He played capo Richard Sackler as a fool. He could have easily played the real guy.

My daughter's a prosecutor. I'm an addictions medical professional. Netflix, you're a disgusting mess. Not any coincidence all your show runners and directors look so much alike, is it?

They don't show a single person shooting up. WTF is this, kindergarten?

So much filler added, so many facts removed. Netflix should be required to remake this accurately.

The story and message are good. To prepare you for what you're going to see think "what if kirk Cameron made a movie about killing those responsible for the opiod crisis?". Or if there was a vigilante movie made by the hallmark channel. There were times where I thought perhaps this was made by those who made "Fireproof" or "the Love Dare", or maybe it's Christian based... then outcomes a heavy set drug dealer having sex with a elderly prostitute.

Overall, the plot is what you would expect from a vigilante film. The message is correct, especially for the times. I found myself 40 minutes into it and with that kind of investment I decided to see it through and it only got more predictable. You'll witness actors both simultaneously over and under act in the backdrop of what they try to make out to be a major city, but is most likely a town of 1,000 people. If you enjoy the videos they make you want during orientation of a retail job, then you're gonna love this movie. If you want a movie with a good plot and don't care how it's delivered, you're gonna love this movie. If you're looking for the next Oscar winner, you're not going to love this movie.

It's a good story, that needs to be told, and for a B film, it was told well. Sure it's predictable, but the opioid and vigilante genres haven't been crossed that much, so it was a good watch. The decent pacing and 85 min runtime made it flow nicely, even if you knew what was coming up. The cinematography and shots were great, as was the score, but the performances for the most part were lackluster, but I feel it was from director Mark Savage failing to direct his cast properly.

Going into the movie expecting something serious is not going to be your best bet. The story is good, but I'd recommend watching it with some buddies you can laugh at it with.