A Score to Settle

The story is quite good, though I would have liked it more if there was no twist in the middle. The pace could be a little faster, but it is an adequately entertaining film.

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

Right, well I had very little expectations to this 2019 movie from writer John Stuart Newman and director Shawn Ku. Why? Well, it is a Nicholas Cage movie, need I say more? I can't claim to be a fan of his in any way. Sure, he puts on the occasional good movie, but they are few and far apart.

Regardless, I had the chance to watch "A Score to Settle", so I sat down to watch it, as I tend to watch movies that I haven't already seen before.

And glad that I did, because this movie was definitely one of Nicholas Cage's better performances, and a movie where you actually get to see him having acting talents. And while the movie itself was sort of mediocre, Cage actually managed to lift it up and out of mediocrity with his impressive performance.

The storyline in "A Score to Settle" definitely had potential. Sure, it didn't offer much of anything new to the genre, but it was still enjoyable enough for what it turned out to be.

Aside from Nicholas Cage, the movie has some nice performances by the likes of Benjamin Bratt, Noah Le Gros and Karolina Wydra. I can't claim to be familiar with neither Noah Le Gros or Karolina Wydra, but they definitely performed well in this movie.

"A Score to Settle" is an adequate movie if you have nothing more pressing on your to-watch-list. While it wasn't outstanding, it was still good enough for a single viewing.

My rating of "A Score to Settle" would have been a very mediocre five out of ten, given the flatlining storyline, but Nicolas Cage's performance lifted the movie up a notch, who knew!?

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.

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.