The Night Crew

THE NIGHT CREW had promise, with an action-focused narrative utilising America's war on drugs as a backdrop, and a seasoned cast of B-movie faces who would no doubt do their best with the material at hand. Sadly, this turns out to be a film which hinges on the quality of the execution, and it just isn't that great.

The narrative is of the typical siege scenario, although it's cheaply-handled and plenty of it takes place at night to hide the paucity of the budget. The cinematography is poor and makes the film look cheap throughout, and the special effects of the shoot-outs and the like are merely ordinary. What's missing is suspense, something to keep you hooked to the unfolding action.

The cast is headlined by Luke Goss (HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY) as the leader of the heroic bounty hunters. Goss is all right, but he has done better in the past, and he seems to be going through the motions here like the rest of the cast members. Reliable B-movie star Bokeem Woodbine is better as the gun-toting Crenshaw. Danny Trejo has an extended cameo, and there are more minor roles for players like Don Swayze and Jason Mewes. Chasty Ballesteros and Luciana Faulhaber are the women of the piece and both particularly poor in the acting stakes. As for the extra, horror-themed sub-plot, that seems to be tacked on to the movie as it bears no influence on the narrative whatsoever.

A girl is on the run from someone or something. The bad guys catch up with her but just at that moment another group appears and rescues her.

This group is made up of bounty-hunters and grabbing her is their job. The main guy is Wade, his sidekick is Rose and there are two more guys.

This girl though is something else, she's not appreciative at all, doesn't have anything to say. At some point she escapes from these guys. In the meantime we learn that her captor is the big bad drug mobster around: Danny Trejo, who else. He's into young girls and wants to girl back at all costs.

The girl hides in some abandoned motel. Our bounty-hunters find her and decide to wait for Trejo's gang to show up. Now we learn that this girl does have something special. Somehow she knows stuff about our guys that she couldn't have known. At this point we get to hear all the relationship gossip among the group for some reason until the bad guys show up and the shootout ensues. Eventually we learn what's going on with the girl and it's a neat twist.

The Night Crew is a B-action movie that aspires to be a bit more than just that, but doesn't really succeed. Casting is strong with Goss, Trejo, Faulhaber. Sloan does a great job but his character doesn't get much camera-time unfortunately. The action is decent, direction is good, the writing could be better. The movie looks good, too. The problem is that there isn't really much of a central character to root for and for no good reason they decided to film the main part of this movie at night, which doesn't work all that well with action movies. The character of the girl, instead of being fascinating is instead somewhat annoying. I did appreciate the sexual tension between her and Rose though. Overall, the concept is pretty good but the script and execution needed more work.

This little low budget flick was a surprise,it was action packed with a gritty look & bursts of brutal violence & a cool little team of Bounty hunters against the Mexican Cartel stoty.

The first thing that grabbed my attention with this film was how good it's directed,it's made really well & looks like most bigger budget cinema films such as Schwarzenegger's Sabotage or Stallone's Expendables films,this tiny budget movie looks like those types in how it's filmed & put on screen. The team of good guy bounty hunters are a cool bunch made up of the tough team leader played by B-movie action star Luke Goss who has made loads of these types of straight to dvd action films but he's actually good,i mean he's no Statham or van damme but he's still pretty cool & we have another cool guy who has been in tons of movies & that's Bokeem Woodbine, he's a cool dude on Luke's team & another ripped-up guy who I've never seen before & a kick-ass very tough lady who i don't know but she's very good in her role.

This is a cool little gem because it's so unpredictable,i could not work out what was gonna happen next or who would survive!!! A big thumbs up for how well it keeps you guessing & on the edge of the seat lol it gets very intense at times.

There's also a nice mystery mixed in with the action crime story of this & that's all to do with the Cult B-movie legend Danny Trejo who is the leader of the cartel & a lady who is on the run from him called mae who is the bounty hunters mission to get her accross the border.

This action Thriller is very well made & way above other straight to dvd films with it's direction,Acting,suspense & excitement!!! It's a crime siege Thriller with a dark creepy mystery mixed into all the Action, easy watching fun.

The IMDb plot section announces: "They soon realize that their fugitive [...] is much more than she lets on." We do as well. We realise who she is in the first minutes. From there, we expect fun... that never comes because the story decides that the bounty hunters will remain ignorant. So, instead of what we want, we get dull images, boring gunfights in the dark.

Of course the bad guys always miss, with either assault rifles or rocket launchers, while the average guys (who hunt people for money, so no, I can't call them good guys) are as good at bullseye as they are at bullshit. Realising their inferiority at handling heavy weapons, the professional killers later opt for much better tactics, going one by one and hand-to-hand against the gun-wielding hero, with the results that you would expect. The Night Crew is one of those movies.

The action scenes do not make up for their inanity, in either tension, humour or spectacle. They are simply bad. As for Danny Trejo, don't expect to see much of him. He is there sporadically, and only for talks.

Not sure why the low reviews but this is actually a decent action flick. I wouldn't pay for it but if you can find it for free, it's worth a watch. A lot of action.