One Way

The good: they tried to make something exciting and thrilling, so I give them credits for trying, but in the end they utterly failed at making a thrilling crime story.

The bad: the story. The story is just not credible and kinda tedious, however much they have tried to make it look thrilling, the story is an empty shell.

How long can I stay interested in a character travelling on a bus? ONLY if the leading actor had been a terrific actor, this movie could have had some merit, but now it has none.

Kevin Bacon on the other hand IS a great actor and he does perform well (as usual) but he cant save this movie.

The story: a criminal has fled on a bus and now other criminals are chasing him. Lots of talk talk talk, little to none thrilling action.

I was at first reluctant to the idea of watching this thriller. The topic sounded so lousy and predictable that I did not feel it at all. But a friend of mine told me to try it, because it was worth...Actually the main character, a petty thug, junkie on the run, had nothing to excit me that much...Not my cup of tea. But to please my friend, I decided to risk ninety six minutes of my precious time on this movie. And I finally did not regret it at all. You have a gorgeous female kingpin, as Kate Winslet in TRIPLE 9, who is absolutely surprising - but I know that the female badass characters is the new fashion. The directing is very professional, well monitored, the acting OK too and Kevin Bacon is also excellent in an unusual role. Not a glorious one. And the ending very unpredictable too. So, to summarize, I was damn wrong at first sight, when reading the scheme of this story. Damn wrong, my instinct, for once, failed.

Lets start off by stating the obvious -- clearly Andrew Baird has found a way to avoid the sales agents pretending to be film makers curse and has created ACTUAL films. Now they are flawed "Zone414" and now "One Way" but at least they are competent films! MGK was great in The Dirt and Verve with Franco so im not sure why everyone is shocked that he can act -- I'm not sure what to make of reviewers anymore there people who tell you that you cant rate a film higher than a 3 because thats what they KNOW and then there are those rating it a 10 because people gave it a "1" so I believe in general if a film is technically sound -- has a decent story -- is acted well then we should start with a 5 -- the rest is how it made you feel -- was it original and was it memorable...on those factors I grade 1 for memorable -- The images of the bus and some of the characters sticks with you once the film is done and thats the sign of a good film. So not getting into the spoilers of this movie but its a good watch --

A guy is on a bus, making phone calls. There is a lot of tension, people in the bus that somehow get involved, he sitting around people that can hear him call in a bus that is totally empty, and a lot of people answering the calls. That's the whole movie.

I guess the film was constructed as an actor vehicle for Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly). Pun not intended, even if the entire film is happening on a bus. I can't say the acting or direction were particularly bad, but the film was a snooze fest with no characterization at all. I mean, the bland overused cliché of someone stealing money and coke from dangerous criminals doesn't arouse interest, especially if you care nothing for what happens to any of the people in the film. Add to this the limited background of the action and you get something really boring.

I haven't watched Phone Booth, but I heard of it when deciding not to watch it. If I knew this film was in the same vein, I wouldn't have watched it either.

Bottom line: only watch it if you like Machine Gun Kelly, as both Kevin Bacon and Travis Fimmel are supporting actors with little screen time.

I actually enjoyed the movie despite its many flaws.

Visually the film is very bleak with grey being the predominant colour of presentation. It's use does work in some parts but it does drive the films mood down too far over a sustained period.

The film's acting is pretty poor with two notable exceptions, Kevin Bacon and MGK. They are both exceptional. The film would have been significantly better if they had shared more screen time.

Where the film really struggles is its pacing. It spends most of our time in one location and so it does get boring, making a 90 minute movie feel much longer :)