5lbs of Pressure

A sad tale of small-world crime, drug, revenge, drama and father's love and redemption. From beginning to end, there's brutality, sadness, throat-clamping situations and some very intense moments whether emotional or heart-breaking in a brutal way.

The character of Luke Evans deserved better, and the way the movie finished just doubled the sadness that's scattered throughout like deadly white powders.

• Screenplay/storyline/plots: 5.5
• Development: 7
• Realism: 7
• Entertainment: 6
• Acting: 7.5
• Filming/photography/cinematography: 7
• VFX/CGI: 7.5
• Music/score/sound: 7
• Depth: 6
• Logic: 5
• Flow: 6
• Crime/romance/thriller/drama: 6
• Ending: 6.

Poor acting. I would say everyone in this film does some pretty bad acting except Luke Evans, but even his character had the stereotypical Brooklyn accent and solemn tone. Some cliché scenes like the AA meeting where someone speaks to the group, then guess who speaks next - Luke Evans. The son looks like he's 30 but plays a character that I think is supposed to be around 17. (His mom says he's "impressionable", so that makes me think teens.) In one scene Adam (Luke Evans) says to his son that he was his age when he committed a murder. We know he was in jail for 16 years, so that would put Adam at around 33 years old, however Luke Adams is 44, and to me he looks like he's in his 50s in this film.

The drug dealer uncle, sitting at his desk in an auto repair shop with a safe on the desk is pretty lame. All the dim lighting is cliché of the seedy drug underworld. The Jamaican accent of the female drug dealer isn't very good, not a genuine accent. I can never understand why casting can't cast actors with genuine accents, especially for accents that so many of us are familiar with.

The film takes a long time to get to the real story, it was probably in the last quarter of the film that I realized where it was going. I prefer to know in the first quarter what the film is about and let it unfold from there. I wanted to stop watching it many times but was too invested to stop so I let it play, probably skipped ahead a couple times.

Greetings again from the darkness. With a setting in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn (though filmed in Manchester, UK), writer-director Phil Allocco has adapted his own 2005 short film THE MIRROR into a gritty and violent feature length crime thriller. For fans of the genre, there is enough here to make it worth watching.

Luke Evans stars as Adam, recently paroled after committing murder 16 years prior. He is 5 years clean, and against all better judgment, he returns to his old neighborhood. Why would he make this choice? Well, he hopes to reconcile with his ex, Donna (Stephanie Leonidas, "American Gothic") and get to know his grown son, Jimmy (Rudy Pankow, who I also watched this week in ACCIDENTAL TEXAN). Donna not only rebuffs Adam's attempts to re-connect, but she begs him to stay away from Jimmy, who she desperately wants to prevent from falling into Adam's old ways. No one seems to believe Adam has turned over a new leaf, and the only job he can secure is as bartender at a dumpy pub called The Mirror.

Allocco begins the movie with an exterior shot of The Mirror Bar where we see and hear gunshots. We then flash back to four days earlier with Adam's parole. The question the opening scene leaves us with is - who is on the wrong end of those gunshots? Slowly (sometimes too slowly) the players in the hood come into focus. Mike (Rory Culkin, the underrated COLUMBUS, 2017) is a rocker wannabe spending his time running risky errands for his Uncle Leff (Alex Pettyfer, MAGIC MIKE, 2012), a drugs and gun dealer who, after his sister's OD, promised to look after her son despite having little faith in him. Mike's friend Eli (Zac Adams) was a witness to his older brother getting shot by Adam all those years ago ... and he remains filled with anger and bitterness. That bitterness shows in how he treats his girlfriend Lori (Savannah Steyn), who mostly just wants a change of locale. Other players here include bad guy ER (Gary McDonald) and Adam's PO played by Julee Cerda.

If you are thinking that's a lot of players in a story about an ex-con, you'd be right. Adam's story is at the center, but there are so many other things being affected by both his presence and the violent nature of street crime, that we feel like we are being introduced to loser after loser. The weight of the past is always hovering, and the themes of crime, revenge, forgiveness, and a desire for a fresh start, all lead to the vicious and endless cycle we've come to expect from these movies. We learn what the title refers to, and how art can act as a bonding agent if given a chance. Adam and Mike are the film's most interesting characters, yet most of the others get a bit shortchanged.

Opening in theaters, on digital and OnDemand beginning March 8, 2024.

5lb of Pressure is captivating and draws you in slowly and brings it all together with deep character driven performances. You easily find yourself rooting for everyone to find their place.

Shot beautifully in tones that remind you of a past time of black & white or sepia, but the true colors of the grit of the 'any neighborhood' we all can remember shines through. It's so nostalgic of a Brooklyn I remember well, yet the neighborhood was not so recognizable. It kept me entranced and looking for a familiar place because the story was so real. Thank you Phil Allocco and your crew for your wonderful story and film.

I like most of the actors in this which was my only reason for watching and across the film there are many fine performances. Problem is the actual plot, individual scenes and script that do not do the actors any favors. There are just way too many scenes that do not ring true. The type of scenes that only happen in bad movies. On top of it, how many times have stories like this been told ? There is nothing new here except that the story is completely implausible. It is well shot, someone did an excellent job on the cinematography but it's a shame that movies today are so bad that some fine actors are reduced to shoot a film that is nonsense. It's not a good thing to be watching a movie and thinking "Why would someone do or say that ?".