Painkiller

What a horrible mess.

Based on Barry Meier's book Painkiller and Patrick Keefe's Empire of pain, this movie gets just about everything wrong. Addiction. Greed. The Sacklers. How they lit the fire of the epidemic.

Worse, they throw in new peripheral characters to move the story.

This movie misses the point on how the Sacklers operated.

Matthew Broderick is wasted. He played capo Richard Sackler as a fool. He could have easily played the real guy.

My daughter's a prosecutor. I'm an addictions medical professional. Netflix, you're a disgusting mess. Not any coincidence all your show runners and directors look so much alike, is it?

They don't show a single person shooting up. WTF is this, kindergarten?

So much filler added, so many facts removed. Netflix should be required to remake this accurately.

You take something that is very real, and then you walk around Tampa during off the off season; looking for people bored and nothing to do. You offer them a hundred bucks and a bottle of pills for their "acting performance." That's how this movie is best summed up.

You'd think someone losing someone would make someone quite hurt. I know, I'm an orphan having watched both parents died. I get more emotionally invested in old commercials than the people playing their parts. Everyone "acting" in this piece is clearly on some downers. Guess the directors didn't specify they'd have to wait and only do their hard earned reward after their scenes were wrapped. Everyone of the "actors" are glassy eyed and almost ready to fall asleep mid sentence.

It's very high and mighty because it does have the moral "high" ground. I was tricked when I bought this. The rating on here was higher then, and I didn't verify with reviews. Only put 5 on it; rather have used that for whatever they are taking.

I also love how specific they are about some things, then they go wildly vague. I'd love to know what this guy did to make his money. He wouldn't tell us, but he used the same two six shooters, and the same outfit to carry out his hits. I live for Hitman, so his sloppy way of taking people out blows my mind. Rolling thru neighborhoods and jet skiing thru lakes dressed like he got his idea from the Payday games. The dude who designed his wicked hard opiod for heart patience has a really sweet trailer. Makes me wonder if that was the directors house. It's legit the nicest looking place in the film. This includes the rich people. It's like a really classy place that Julian thought he was getting from Mr Lahey.

OK, so the dude goes to see the doctor that called into main characters podcast. The doctor knew his name, and yet, when the protagonist shows up in the doctor's office the next day, and he was clueless. I maybe high, but they are Major Tom, man.

As a chronic pain patient, I was a bit hesitant at first. Pain patients receive so much judgement so the last thing I wanted to see was a movie which would make me feel bad for something I cannot control. However, Painkiller tackles a real problem. The same problem that causes so many tragic deaths ironically also causes so many pain chronic pain patients to feel judged, depressed, defeated and even suicidal. Painkiller tackles the reason behind the opioid epidemic, greedy pharmaceutical companies, greedy Doctors who dishonor their Hippocratic Oath to DO NO HARM, the lack of resources for law enforcement to tackle the issue and the drug dealers.

Listening to the main character Bill as he comforts a parent who lost a child to an overdose while dealing with his own loss really broke my heart. Watching Bill take matters into his own hands to avenge his daughter's death was satisfying. What parent wouldn't do everything in their power to bring their child's killer to justice? Tom Parnell as Doctor Mac is the epitome of a great Doctor. Yet no good deed goes unpunished. Enter Michael Pare as Doctor Rhodes who not only steals Good Doctor Mac's wife but destroys his career when Doctor Mac refuses to market a drug meant to help heart patients as yet another PAINKILLER.

Supporting characters Alexander Pennecke as RIP, Kalimah Gaston as Janet Simone and Kristina Berenger as Lisa really strengthened each scene. Bill Oberst Jr and Tom Parnell really compliment each other. The action scenes were organic. This movie will touch on all of your emotions. Mark Savage, Tom Parnell and David Richardson are a creative power team. Director Mark Savage is a fearless genius. Everything about Painkiller works. I highly recommend it.

This is a miserable dumbfest of a movie. A guy who holds the doctors responsible for his daughter ODing on whatever drug they are talking about here. Something more potent than fentanyl is what I got. And Yes, Fentanyl being used by addicts is horrible but so was this movie!!!

So dude goes around shooting CEO's and Doctors and talking about the crisis he holds a radio show to talk about. For about 90 minutes.

And the funny part is all the victims are addicts themselves and have whores for wives or girlfriends.

Just boring. 3/10.

It's a good story, that needs to be told, and for a B film, it was told well. Sure it's predictable, but the opioid and vigilante genres haven't been crossed that much, so it was a good watch. The decent pacing and 85 min runtime made it flow nicely, even if you knew what was coming up. The cinematography and shots were great, as was the score, but the performances for the most part were lackluster, but I feel it was from director Mark Savage failing to direct his cast properly.