Dangerous

Scott Eastwood both looks like and sounds like a younger version of his famous father who at one time was the #1 most popular movie star in the entire world. Unfortunately that is not nearly enough to rescue this production which, according to the IMDb notes, was shelved for several YEARS (!) due to funding issues. The story about a "reformed" sociopath sounds clever ... until the viewer realizes that the reforming means said sociopath is unwilling to kill or seriously harm anyone, even though almost every other character in the story is trying to kill or seriously harm HIM. Even viewers willing to settle for a mid-level action romp will be equally disappointed because the opening scene -- where Eastwood does his daily workout by literally attacking the furniture in his own apartment -- is about as violent as his character ever gets. Yes, there are a few A-listers in the cast, but they too seem as lost as the star. Mel Gibson (also at one time one of the most popular actors on the planet) seems to think he is in a sitcom, and adjusts his performance accordingly. And the actor playing Scott's mother consistently yells out all her lines as though the Director had warned her that her mic was bad, and she was determined to compensate for that. The only real suspense is wondering what happened to the "better" movie this could easily have been?

I like Scott Eastwood. He IS a good actor. He's believable as a bad guy. He's NOT believable as a tough guy. He his dad's eyes. He does NOT have his dad's voice (his voice is much higher). When he tries to be Clint he fails (which I assume he was trying to do here). He's supposed to be this stupid tough guy but you barely see him do anything tough. What fight scenes he does have are the quick cut quick shot scenes where you really can't tell what's going on and it's clear he really can't fight well. The story is so drawn out and could have been better with a better script. There's lot of logic thrown out the window and what's even more painful is watching the great Famke Janssen who is one of those ladies who would have aged gracefully for sure, with the plastic surgery (on her eyes and cheeks for sure) and all you can think of is "why?" (like Nicole Kidman).

If you can get through this mess without fast forwarding you're a better person than I. And when Scott Eastwood is trying to do his dad, it's even more painful. His dad is one of the greatest, most charismatic actors ever and Scott will always be a fine actor but will never be his dad.

He was great in Wrath of Man. Not in this.

You will love the dialogues between the main characters Yes, "Dangerous" is predictable. So what? If you are well tuned in and listen to the dialogues between Scott Eastwood (D), his eccentric psychiatrist (Mel Gibson) and Destiny Millns (Jo), you will really enjoy this movie. Scott Eastwood, for his part, plays D as apathetic as possible, sounding more and more like his father. Outstanding acting from Mel Gibson (has been a while....) and Destiny Millns (Jo). You can also see and feel the chemistry in the dialogues between these three characters. The movie is missing a couple of things and therefore will not be well received by the audience. That´s my guess. But I think that whatever this movie might be missing is made up by the dialogues. I found the dialogues catchy, really well written and executed. And do not forget that there´s a little plot twist at the end. Forget prejudice and have a go! Watch and you will enjoy.

Well, I have to say that with the cast ensemble that were present for the 2021 action thriller "Dangerous", I was expecting a tad more than what writer Christopher Borrelli and director David Hackl actually delivered.

The storyline told in "Dangerous" was pretty straight forward. And there were aspects to the storyline that had potential and showed promise. But ultimately then just almost everything that writer Christopher Borrelli were setting up just never culminated in a fulfilling climax, and that made director David Hackl's delivery of the movie feel sluggish. And the movie was suffering terribly from that fact.

The narrative was dull and slow paced, as director David Hackl never let the movie pick up pace. So it was a fairly monotonous movie experience. And for a thriller, there wasn't much of anything particularly exciting or thrilling really. The movie was just too generic, bland and predictable.

The movie actually has a rather impressive cast list, which include Scott Eastwood, Kevin Durand, Famke Janssen, Tyrese Gibson, Mel Gibson and Brendan Fletcher to mention the most prominent. They put on good performances, just a shame that they had only limited contents to work with in terms of script and storyline.

"Dangerous" is a flaccid action thriller. And if you enjoy the action thriller genre, then there are far better choices of movies out there to provide proper entertainment. "Dangerous" is watchable, but that is also just about it.

My rating of "Dangerous" lands on a bland five out of ten stars.

I'd call this one of the much better B films I've seen lately, but it's too bad the novice filmmakers didn't put in more effort that could've elevated this to A film status.

Production designer turned novice producer and director David Hackl chose to focus more on cliches and directed his cast to play dumb in attempting humor. We're all tired of the cliched funny looking loud redneck bad guy. Then having Kevin Durand's talent wasted posing as a cliched Dr. Evil and being lost in his duties was cringe. Even Scott Eastwood's character was poorly directed, but luckily his character was elevated with Mel Gibson's character as their dynamics was hilarious. I felt that dynamic was underutilized. Even the rest of the cast were poorly directed and looked lost for the most part.

Then we have newb writer Christopher Borrelli who actually came up with a nice story with great twists and turns, but the execution was lacklustre. Had a seasoned writer looked over the script, I'm sure there'd be changes to elevate the screenplay. At 99 min long, it felt longer with many long dragged out and unnecessary scenes - and characters. The pacing was also slow and dragging. What even was the point of having Tyrese Gibson and Famke Janssen's character written in, when they were just unnecessary filler with little to no character development. The screenplay needed about 15 mins of fluff omitted, and another 30 mins added in utilizing Gibson and Janssen's character better, as well as making Eastwood's one-man-army character much more exciting. Or omit Gibson and Janssen's character all together.

But in general, the casting was great, and Mel Gibson shined (and was hilarious), but most of the leads were so underused, it felt they were only cast to add value to the film. The score was actually on point, especially for a B film, and the cinematography decent. The underground set and hidden entry they created was actually quite awesome. You wont see that one coming.

I feel if the directing and writing of the characters had been more serious - instead of acting like cartoon dummy bad guys, this film could've been a hit. It felt lost trying to decide if it's an action film (of which any little action was boring), or a dark comedy thriller, that was riddled with cliches.

Nevertheless, I saw it to the end, and actually enjoyed it - albeit noticing the small details that could've elevated this production to another level. For the novice filmmakers, I feel it's still a win, because I've seen some terrible films from seasoned filmmakers lately. Thus it's deserving of my 7/10.