Atividades Criminosas

"Sometimes what looks like a dead end to a dire situation can be an opportunity." After meeting at an old classmates funeral four friends begin to reconnect. When they hatch a plan to play the stock market for a sure thing that will make them all millionaires they jump at the chance. When things go wrong they not only lose their money but they find out that one of them borrowed money from the mob. Now, left with no other choice they must make a deal in order to survive. I love mob movies and was looking forward to this. This is not the type of mob movie I was hoping for. The movies is essentially a kidnapping and little by little more truth is uncovered. The movie isn't that bad and does keep you watching but it was a little slow and not really what I was expecting it to be. The acting is really good, even though it is hard to buy Travolta as a mob boss. This is a decent one time watch movie but nothing all that amazing and nothing I think I would watch again. Overall, good but nothing to scream about. I give this a B.

For all the gritty title and noir poster it has, the better part of Criminal Activity is its satirical attempt on crime genre. The thriller works by introducing subplots while playing out the main story with a lot of twists and turns. While not every narrative pays out, there's a solid acting here and it's pretty exciting to see the diverse characters as they are put in highly volatile situations.

Four young men reunite on the funeral of their friend. After a smoke they are intrigued by an investment opportunity that fails almost immediately. Unfortunately to them the investment is already tied to a mafia and they must do a difficult favor to clean the slate. Their hardship eventually turns into a spiral of dangerous power struggle with kidnapped niece and nephew while agents and assassins chase after them.

It's a deeper premise than it originally shows, creating layers of subplots as it progresses. Some of the sequences are highly entertaining due to their absurdity and good delivery by the actors. Edi Gathegi as the gangster involved in all the shenanigans stands out even among the capable leads of John Travolta and Dan Stevens. There are unexpected outlandish mafia themed narratives, or perhaps slight parody of it, that will deliver chuckle or thrill to audience.

However, even with most of the story manage to be entertaining, the movie tends to overreach. It has plenty of side characters or events that may not be that important yet still get a lot of screen time. It tries to pull off too many tricks that don't resonate better than its core story. Not to mention the twisting revelation at the end feels rather abrupt and might too far fetch, although it's still decent due to the outlandish nature.

Criminal Activity works on parts where the acting and satire are strong, but it does try to overreach with few others distracting stints like a greedy mobster.

Im not going to say much other than it reminded me of suicide kinds with a much better twist. Iveseen a lot of reviews where people are complaining about the twist at the end. I found it totally unpredictable and actually gave you an answer to the whole movie unlike so many movies today where it ends with someone just walking away and you are left saying "that's it"? I gave it a 7 only because 7.7 isn't an option. I would watch it a second time and i do suggest this movie as a good movie that will not leave you feeling you've wasted your time. Also, i had no problems with any of the acting, overall i would give the actors a 7 as well.

Just finished the movie, and I was captivated the whole time. I was surprised to see that the entire cast put together a very convincing performance. The script and plot were also clever, and somewhat original for a change (which was refreshing to see). It did seem a little Tarantino-esque with some of the music, dialog, and situation. But I guess if you're going to model your work after anyone, QT is probably the guy to go with.

Overall I enjoyed the movie, and I do recommend checking it out. It probably is not for everybody but if you are a fan of Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino's work, I imagine you will probably enjoy this too. Jackie Earl Haley did a fine job in his directorial debut, and I look forward to seeing more of his work.

7.5/10

Criminal Activities has a good cast for talent in the main roles with Michael Pitt, Dan Stevens, Christopher Abbott, Rob Brown, Edi Gathegi and John Travolta. The premise of the film is four old friends come up with a financial investment plan to make a small fortune but they need $200K in seed money which one of the four old friends arranges to get a loan for. When their financial investment plan quickly goes south their anonymous financial backer comes forward and demands his $200K back immediately plus another $200K in interest, or else their heads will be handed to them, literally. The loan arranger is connected to the mob underworld and he tells his four patsies that he will wipe the slate clean of the $400K loan if they agree to kidnap another hood and hold him for just 24 hours.

So the kidnapping plan is set in motion with the four amateurs and although it hits a few snags they eventually get the kidnapping completed and they keep the mob hostage tied up for their loan shark waiting to get the green light to let him go.

What follows is about 60 minutes of continuous blather by all cast members including a whole lot of four letter words that rhyme with the word "PUCK". Most sensible film goers would at some point get up and ask for a refund but since I purchased the Blu Ray I chose to bear with the directors master(less)piece and although I was becoming very irritated with the endless blather of totally useless dialogue by the six main characters which I assumed was necessary to fill an otherwise empty void to completing a 94 minute movie I hung in there and I was rewarded with a better than average film end.

I don't want to spoil any film goers surprise ending or personal experience with Criminal Activities but to summarize the film in three acts I would rate: Act One (1) with a "C" rating, Act Two (2) with a "D" rating, and the final act, Act Three (3) with a "B+" plus rating.

So if you can hang in there through a pretty boring middle half of the film with a lot of useless four letter word dialogue you may be pleasantly surprised with an above average decent film ending.