I stumbled across this movie and upon seeing Emma Roberts, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Liam Hemsworth, I wondered why have I never heard of this movie? Dwayne Johnson is a big star, Liam Hemsworth is in the friggin' Hunger Games series, and Emma Roberts, well maybe she is a selective taste. Still, why is it with two big names and one young lady whose last name is at least well known, why have I yet to see a trailer or hear any mention of this movie?
Well, let's first explain why by talking about the characters. Hemsworth plays one of the leads, Chris, and Michael Angarano plays his best friend Eddie. Now, Chris and Eddie are New York boys in the 1980s who seemingly are both of Italian descent. Chris himself is Greek, and Eddie's background, I don't believe, was fully detailed. Still Chris is your everyday boy trying to make his dad proud, follow in his footsteps and become a cop, but thanks to deadbeat Eddie, he has a drug charge and is denied by the NYPD. But, he does make the acquaintance of a cop named James Ransome (played by Dwayne Johnson).
The story goes, Chris is a nice young man who made one bad friendship by hanging out with Eddie. The boy can't keep a job and pretty much, you are constantly wondering why Chris is friends with Eddie. But, while Chris' dream of becoming a cop fails, at least, unlike his father, he gets a decent job as a security guard for an armored car company named Empire. Thing is, seemingly the place is ran by shabby businessmen who like to take some off the top. Everyone knows, and no one cares. Chris tells this to Eddie, and then seemingly Eddie tells everyone. This all leads to a series of events which continually make you wonder why the hell is Chris friends with Eddie?
Now, the saving grace to this movie was, for me, Dwayne Johnson. As he is naturally fit to, he plays a cop, and though his charisma is there and intensity, he doesn't have a whole lot of jokes to give us unfortunately. But, when he is involved and guns are being fired and there are shootouts being done, this movie livens up quick and brings your attention right to the screen. Also, I must admit, as shaky as the story was, it had potential to be better.
With that comment though, let us speak on the mess this film is. First off, Michael Angarano makes you hate Eddie so much that you wish he was dead not too long after meeting him and, sadly, he never finds a single moment to redeem himself or even allow us to understand why he is like he is or why Chris is friends with him. Add onto that, both Hemsworth and Angarano make terrible leads. Hemsworth seemingly only has looks and Angarano, maybe it is just the films I've seen him in, but I just don't think of him as someone who should be one of the focuses in a film. To me, he utterly ruins the movie for the way his character is written and portrayed may get a rise out of you, but he never entertains you. He isn't someone you love to hate, but someone you wish wasn't so damn lucky to not get his behind beat and shot to death. And really, be it Angarano or the script, deleting this character and refocusing the film on Chris' family troubles I think could have saved the film from ultimately being mediocre.
Overall: Skip it Even if you are a fan of anyone involved, it isn't worth the frustration or your time. I paused and walked away from this movie multiple times and would have probably not completed it if it wasn't for me already having a few pages of notes. Dwayne Johnson does his best to save this movie, but Michael Angarano's character takes an elephant size crap on the film and Liam Hemsworth just plays a simple guy who doesn't illicit any type of response out of you. With Eddie deleted from this story, seemingly based on true events since it ends with the guy with an old interview with the real Chris Potamitis, I think this movie, if restructured around the hinted financial troubles of Chris' family, could have been decent. But, again, Eddie's involvement only leads you to despise the character, hate yourself for watching the movie, and slightly reminds you why some people, or maybe just me, only know Michael Angarano for dating Kristen Stewart.
Well, let's first explain why by talking about the characters. Hemsworth plays one of the leads, Chris, and Michael Angarano plays his best friend Eddie. Now, Chris and Eddie are New York boys in the 1980s who seemingly are both of Italian descent. Chris himself is Greek, and Eddie's background, I don't believe, was fully detailed. Still Chris is your everyday boy trying to make his dad proud, follow in his footsteps and become a cop, but thanks to deadbeat Eddie, he has a drug charge and is denied by the NYPD. But, he does make the acquaintance of a cop named James Ransome (played by Dwayne Johnson).
The story goes, Chris is a nice young man who made one bad friendship by hanging out with Eddie. The boy can't keep a job and pretty much, you are constantly wondering why Chris is friends with Eddie. But, while Chris' dream of becoming a cop fails, at least, unlike his father, he gets a decent job as a security guard for an armored car company named Empire. Thing is, seemingly the place is ran by shabby businessmen who like to take some off the top. Everyone knows, and no one cares. Chris tells this to Eddie, and then seemingly Eddie tells everyone. This all leads to a series of events which continually make you wonder why the hell is Chris friends with Eddie?
Now, the saving grace to this movie was, for me, Dwayne Johnson. As he is naturally fit to, he plays a cop, and though his charisma is there and intensity, he doesn't have a whole lot of jokes to give us unfortunately. But, when he is involved and guns are being fired and there are shootouts being done, this movie livens up quick and brings your attention right to the screen. Also, I must admit, as shaky as the story was, it had potential to be better.
With that comment though, let us speak on the mess this film is. First off, Michael Angarano makes you hate Eddie so much that you wish he was dead not too long after meeting him and, sadly, he never finds a single moment to redeem himself or even allow us to understand why he is like he is or why Chris is friends with him. Add onto that, both Hemsworth and Angarano make terrible leads. Hemsworth seemingly only has looks and Angarano, maybe it is just the films I've seen him in, but I just don't think of him as someone who should be one of the focuses in a film. To me, he utterly ruins the movie for the way his character is written and portrayed may get a rise out of you, but he never entertains you. He isn't someone you love to hate, but someone you wish wasn't so damn lucky to not get his behind beat and shot to death. And really, be it Angarano or the script, deleting this character and refocusing the film on Chris' family troubles I think could have saved the film from ultimately being mediocre.
Overall: Skip it Even if you are a fan of anyone involved, it isn't worth the frustration or your time. I paused and walked away from this movie multiple times and would have probably not completed it if it wasn't for me already having a few pages of notes. Dwayne Johnson does his best to save this movie, but Michael Angarano's character takes an elephant size crap on the film and Liam Hemsworth just plays a simple guy who doesn't illicit any type of response out of you. With Eddie deleted from this story, seemingly based on true events since it ends with the guy with an old interview with the real Chris Potamitis, I think this movie, if restructured around the hinted financial troubles of Chris' family, could have been decent. But, again, Eddie's involvement only leads you to despise the character, hate yourself for watching the movie, and slightly reminds you why some people, or maybe just me, only know Michael Angarano for dating Kristen Stewart.