Section 8

There is actually a category of film that is worse, much worse, than simply a bad movie. And OMG this is it. When you start with good talent both in front of and behind the camera, and a solid budget, and you still make a mess of the entire thing ... well that takes a very special talent indeed. The really amazing thing is the switch, the pivot, at the 16:00 mark. Up to then, the movie is competent and even interesting. Then, out of nowhere, the audience learns that, because the protagonist interfered with a low-level ghetto "protection racket," the aforesaid racketeers had no choice but to immediately find and kill the wife and child of the person who interfered...? From that point on, the entire film becomes a sort of acid trip into progressively worse film making. Whatta ^%^% waste.((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

It's Nicholas Cage bad. Yes, that bad. I mean it got some big names, but I wasn't expecting an Oscar worthy film. Yet, it is bad. The dialog, the action, the story, the music, just bad. It feels like they filmed it on an iPhone. That's bad. All the "twists?" You'll see them coming a mile away. I just have no idea why this film was made. It's Bruce Willis bad. That's how bad. I want to like this film, honestly, but I just don't. Not one redeeming quality. Not one good scene. Cringe worthy bad. Really bad. Like high school film class bad. It's boring, it's cheesy, it's lame, and it's predictable.

The directing was amateur hour with the abysmal slow-mo and faded flashbacks - and terrible cast direction. Most of the second-rate characters felt like it was their first acting gig, and I know they're better than that, so this is the perfect example of the director failing to direct his cast properly. Although Ryan Kwanten acted his heart out, he was poorly showcased from the directing to the writing, that was riddled with cheesy dialogue. The screenplay, even with the few entertaining twists and action scenes, was too generic and cliched, and lacked suspense, intrigue and thrills. I wanted to see more of Mickey Rourke, and I'm not even sure if Scott Adkins' character was needed, but he surely needed to be in this film much more to enhance the action. I feel he should've been cast for Kwanten's character, the entire backstory and current one would've been more believable and suspenseful had there been more fight scenes. There were far too many plot and technical issues, most fifth-grade drama class errors. Eg: the briefcase with maybe 5-6 rough stacks having 3 million in it was a joke. Never mind Lundgren's full-auto handgun with the endless ammo. If you're a fan of the iconic actors, it's an ok one-time watch if you're bored, just don't expect to see that much of most of them, or any decent non-generic story.

An unrustling narrative, devoid of any worthy substance, relying on the expected norms of the genre, bringing nothing new, or original to the screen. Packed up with the fight, war, and action celebrities, missing Arnold or Sylvester-type charismatic and charming characters, makes the hole thing a bore. The film starts with an unrealistic fight sceen from Afghanistan where the Afghan soldiers speak in the middle eastern dialect, instead of the Afgan Arabic. The US moves into the neighborhood knowing it's a setup, in humvees with all windows open letting the fresh air and bullets in. Ultimately, getting many killed. Usually, viewers find predictability in scenarios where many other films explored the same thing with a number of similar outcomes. This is one of those you will say I knew this was going to happen.

Usually (usually), if I decide to watch a movie, I watch it to its conclusion, whatever that may be. However, in this case, I made an exception and did other things like laundry, reading part of a novel, fixing something to eat, and dealing with other more pressing issues that mattered more than this interlude in my life. But, typically, people in Hollywood need jobs, have to earn their paychecks, keep their families fed, etc., etc. Additionally, I used a bit of "speed watching" to shorten the amount of time required to view this waste of time I love fast-forwarding options on all the various channels.

Dude, what is this? Michey rourke looking like a robot.. guy cannot even smile anymore.. or show any emotion at all.. we had dolph lundgren but he does nothing at all... sookies brother is terrible.. at first i thought this movie would try to be similar to ryan gosling and chris evans movie... dude is in jail and then gets into a secret sector killing people.. for the government.. it had potential but it was poorly done.. plot consisted of grey bearded dude killing sookis brothers family just to recruit him.. and dolph lundgren was part of it... no,m wait he pretended to be and double crossed the guy the last minute.. and let us not forget scott adkins... dude appeared like in 2 scenes doing nothing really, shooting the dude in the middle of the street in broad daylight and then at the ending, kicking our heros ass easily just to forget where his gun was knocked under an armchair.. and just got killed.. another wasted potential.