Written by: Fred Cavayé (characters), Adam G. Simon (screenplay)
Directed by: Joe Lynch
Starring: Frank Grillo, Anthony Mackie, Marcia Gay Harden
Rated: TV-MA
Watch the trailer
Plot
Based on the 2010 French crime drama of the same name, a man is pitted against rival gangsters and trigger-happy police in a deadly race to save the lives of his kidnapped wife and unborn child.
Verdict
You'll know exactly what kind of movie this is just a few minutes. It's okay, but offers no thrills or surprises. It's a by the numbers crime/action movie. There's nothing that stands out, not even one really cool moment. This is simple to a fault action movie.
Skip it.
Review
This movie has a very simple concept. An otherwise law abiding citizen is forced into a situation where he must help a criminal. At best I soon realized this could be an okay movie. By default the movie can only do so much. Frank Grillo seems to make a certain type of movie while playing a gruff character.
The best part of this movie may be the music, but that's not enough to carry it. I enjoyed the older hip hop.
This is boring in that the characters are flat and there's nothing surprising. The citizen falls deeper into helping a criminal to save his wife. The characters' motivations don't have any nuance. The most interesting character may be an amateur film maker who happens to be the head of a street gang. That's not saying much.
This could have been an interesting take on captor-captive relationship, except it isn't. Anthony Mackie is forced to help Grillo to save his wife. Mackie's wife kind of befriends Grillo's brother who is keeping her hostage. There's a hint of something interesting there, but this movie never intended to pursue it. Instead the movie is content to be a boring action movie. There's no reason to see this as there are so many better options.
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