Director: Gonzalo López-Gallego
Writer: Nils Lyew
Stars: Lynn Collins, Ian McShane, Patrick Wilson
Plot: A new sheriff of a small town along the U.S. & Mexico border investigates a drug cartel deal that went horribly wrong.
Running Time: 1 hour 37 minutes
Rotten Tomatoes Score: Critics 31% Audience 32%
Why I Watched it: Mainly the cast, I hadn’t heard about this film until it debuted on Netflix Canada.
Random Thoughts: A little trivia to start off Patrick Wilson replaced Timothy Olyphant, it would have been a Deadwood reunion with Ian McShane, that would have been cool nothing against Patrick Wilson. This is an odd film, not exactly what I thought it would be and going in this isn’t a drug cartel movie per say they’re moving bullets not drugs.
What I liked: This is going to be a hard movie to review cause there’s a lot of stuff to like but right beside it is stuff that just doesn’t work at all, it’s a love/hate movie for sure. The acting is good across the board, honestly Ian McShane might be one of the most watchable actors working today, he reminds me of John Hurt no matter what they do, role genre they just own it. He’s good in here and I kind of wish the film was about him. I like Patrick Wilson he’s a solid actor and he’s done some very good genre work and he’s good here but the script and direction does his character no favors. The action is violent and sudden I will say I was surprised at a couple of things, I rarely jump but it got me. Leguizamo plays a scary killer in this for like ¾ of the film he doesn’t talk. Spooky character, very driven. Jim Belushi is a good slimy bad guy, he looks terrible and is clearly having fun. The set up of this small border town is nicely done.
What I didn’t Like: There’s a lot wrong with this film and it’s too bad it has some good stuff in it and it had some promise but the script and direction is not very good here, it’s a case where the film didn’t cut together so much stuff is stilted or uneven, scenes don’t make sense together. The one character hurt the most is played by Lynn Collins, an actress I like but here she doesn’t have a character, she has two things, she should leave town and she was in a relationship with Patrick Wilson, that’s all we know, why did they break up? Why did she get involved with another guy? Does she still care for Wilson? Same with Wilson’s character he is from the small town and has come back, we don’t know why he left or why he’s back. When I say scenes don’t cut together here’s a prime example McShane is trying to get info from Belushi, Belushi shoots him, McShane walls over in his chair, Belushi stands over him. End of scene. So we assume McShane is dead, wait for it, later McShane is shown with his shirt open with a bullet proof vest on, he’s talking to Wilson about Belushi shooting him, now Belushi isn’t arrested, so the question is how did McShane get out of that spot, he’s shot by a guy in the guy’s office yet gets out without either one being dead? So Belushi just let him leave and then they go back after each other. Also the big smuggler the bullets and the whole money thing is never fully explained. By the end everyone is trying to kill each other for $250,000.
Final Thoughts: It has it moments and I would say see it for Ian McShane alone, but this is a bit of a mess, it doesn’t hang together very well.
Rating: 5/10
Movie Burner Entertainment 