Saw this last night at the L.A. Film festival. Only went because it was FREE, but was pleasantly surprised at the pacing. There were implausible moments and a cheesy drawn out cell phone conversation..in the middle of a police chase, with a hackneyed "Shawshank Redemption"/ "Thelma & Louise" ending, but Tyrese Gibson and Megan Goode draw you in and make you want to see where this thing goes. They look great and had chemistry.
(Megan, it's time for you to do more films like "Brick". I think you have the range to break out in some different roles outside off 'hood flicks)
Kimora Lee Simmons is hilarious in her cameo. She may need to do a movie herself! Just check out the way she curls her lip when she gets an unwanted man in her house. I will have to add her performance to my collection of "Great Actor Scenes that stand out by themselves"
There are clichés galore, and one scene I found insulting to elderly black women. (Megan's character calls a grandmotherly-looking black woman the "B-word". It was funny in an earlier scene where Megan Goode's character is called one off screen for holding up traffic, but it doesn't work when used on an old woman in a bank. Kasi, you shoulda told Vondie to drop that line!)
Lastly, I always laugh when I see so-called "gangsters" making money hand over foot with their hustling,but they never move to nicer areas? You have thousands of dollars stashed in safety deposit boxes and $250,000 worth of jewelry, and you still live in a jacked up house in the worst parts of L.A.? Dumb.
Hunter Hall who plays the kidnapped son is a cute little boy, but his acting was stilted and unnatural in several scenes to the point of being distracting. But he sure does look like his momma! (Kasi, you need to be in more movies! We miss you!)
This movie is strictly popcorn fun. As Mr. Vondi Curtis Hall stated before showing his film last night, "This is a movie, not necessarily a film" in the artsy-fartsy sense. Most critics have been complaining that it's hodge-podge of various genres, but it works for what it tries to do: tell the journey of a single-parent father trying to save his son at all costs. How often do you get to see that? **(And the brother survives? Shee-itt!)
Lessons learned from this flick? You can shoot and kill a handful of bad people, rob empty houses in the Hollywood Hills because a half naked girl can fool police, and you can drive to Mexico and live happily ever after in a Malibu-styled beach house without a passport, just a bag full of money. Let me get my glock!
