Little Dixie

As a fan of both John Swab's work as a director so far and Frank Grillo I was looking forward to this. It didn't disappoint. Little Dixie is in the vein of things like Too Old To Die Young and Brawl In Cell Block 99 a slow paced methodical thriller that has you on the edge of your seat for the majority of the runtime.

As I said before I've been a fan of Frank Grillo for a while and if this was the 1980's I think he would be a huge star. He possesses all the qualities a movie star should have. Great looks, great actor and is charismatic and likable. Aside from having a leading role in two of The Purge movies Grillo has mostly been relegated to B movies where he's either criminally underused or completely wasted. With the exception being his collaborations with Joe Carnaghan in Boss Level and Copshop who knows Grillo is a skilled actor and charismatic and likable and puts him front and center and knows how to use him properly. Little Dixie proves that John Swab is the only other director Grillo has worked with so far that knows how to use him properly. He's front and center here and his name is the only one on the poster. Despite the cast containing some other recognizable names in Eric Dane and Annabeth Gish they don't overshadow Grillo or move him to the sidelines. Beau Knapp also gives a good performance here as the terrifying cartel member "Cuco".

I'm not sure what writer, director and producer John Swab was thinking trying to knock-off a bunch of "already done and much better films". Although flawed, I still enjoyed two of Swab's previous films, Body Brokers and Candy Land, because they had what this film severely lacked, originality.

Filmmakers are supposed to get better at their craft, not worse, and this over-indulgent cliched nonsense is a slap to Frank Grillo, who deserves much better than this. Grillo was stellar at his lead role in Boss Level, and deserves lead roles in great films, not this nonsense.

Swab decided to add every cliche with lots of filler and very little substance within his cringeworthy sub-plots, that took away from the story instead of adding to it. I admired Swab's style in Candy Land, but in this one, his writing and directing was lazy and rushed.

The first two acts were suspenseful, intriguing, and had great flow and continuity, but as soon as the third act started - at the drag queen karaoke bar, it went off the rails. It was just all plot holes and nonsense, that lost all credibility with its lack of creativity and originality.

It's too bad, because the cinematography was excellent, as was the score, and all casting and performances were on point. But all that isn't enough to say the slowly paced 105 min runtime was an engaging and entertaining ride throughout the entire film, only the first two-thirds of it. So it's only a 5/10 from me, but could've easily been a 7 or 8 had that third act been better.

I would liken this film to a John Wick light movie. If you like that kind of plot, then it works. If you want character development, believability, incredible acting and some deep meaning then don't watch it.

If you like a well paced action movie with a high kill count and a decent plot that sticks to it then you will enjoy this movie.

It's made in a B movie vein where the score and kills and things like that are basic. It's entertaining and again if you like seeing bad guys get taken out at a high volume and some decent acting then you'll enjoy this movie.

Overall it's just a B action movie with a high kill count and some pretty good cinematography. So I enjoyed it as a light viewing experience. 6/10.

Why do we keep getting Frank Grillo movies? Who asked for this mediocre actor, who can barely move, to be an "action" star. This is just like every other movie with Frankie. Dull, phoned-in, little substance, no acting ability, and I presume, way over budget for what you get.

But, this movie is nothing new. There is nothing novel introduced here. It is the same as every other single action movie within the last 40 years; flashy. And that's all. There is no substance.

And, good lord, we have to sit through another bumbling attempt at reading lines by Frank Grillo. Stop already with Frank Grillo. He isn't an actor in any sense of the word except that people keep putting him in roles. He must be doing it for free.

There was an attempt by the rest of the cast though, so I won't rate it too low. They probably didn't know Frank was in it until it was already too late to back out. That is the only reason I see people working with him. See how they snuck him into the Avengers movie? I did too. That's why I think he's somebody's nephew.

I reckon Eric Dane might wish he had stayed on his last ship after his stint as Governor of Oklahoma here ends rather more abruptly than he might have expected at the hustings. He cannot resist a good old gloat when his administration sends the brother of a Mexican drug lord to the chair. The uneasy truce that has existed thus far is now ended, and his assistant "Billie" (Annabeth Gish) and her fixer - and his wartime CO - "Doc" (Frank Grillo) have tightropes to walk whilst "Miguel" (Maurice Compte) decides how best to exact revenge. That involves his sexually ambiguous and brutal brother "Cuco" (Beau Knapp) who decides, quite cleverly, that he will kidnap the daughter of "Doc" and force him to do their dirty work for them... What now ensues is just poor, sorry. It's like a video-shoot 'em up game with bodies falling all over the place and little if any jeopardy until the last few minutes when, even then, the ending has precious little by way of surprise. The plot itself is pretty preposterous and the acting does little to inject any real sense of menace to this procedural, repetitive and over-long training video for would-be ten year old assassins. I wouldn't bother if I were you.