As a tradition, each year in memory of Paul Walker, I review a movie that he starred in as long as I run out. I miss him terribly still... he was truly one of my favorites. This is for you, happy birthday!
A group of professional robbers come across an old member of their team who went to jail for some of his side deals. Their old member, however has some beef and wishes to take revenge on the men who left him behind. Meanwhile, two cops going through their own personal trauma decide to dive into the last robbery the team committed and get pretty close to taking down the whole gang.
It still amazes me how this movie has not blown up. It has the biggest names, not just for 2010, but today too. Starting from
Idris Elba,
Zoe Saldana,
Matt Dillon,
Hayden Christensen, and
Jay Hernandez. I remember back then that, I was hyped that at the time, my two favorite actors,
Walker and
Christensen had a movie together.
And I don't want to force my female gaze onto the viewers: but OH MY GOD, Walker looks stunning gorgeous in this movie, like he was cut from marble. But basically everyone, I just... giving them dark suits, seriously, the designer deserves all the awards. These men were dressed in the best way possible and I couldn't look away. That said, going back to the movie itself... I feel conflicted, after watching it, but I do think that was the intent of the movie. Allow me to elaborate.
We see the "bad guys", the team of robbers, and at the same time the police officers, the "good guys", as they try to crack this case. And what we see is that the line between them is terribly thin. The bad guys might have money and the skills to pull off jobs, but they also have everyday problems: they want to be married, they want to care for their siblings, their parents and try their best to not harm anyone in the meanwhile. And then we can look at the cops: one of them breaks the law just in order to not lose his family. They are not rich, and they very well know the difference between good and bad, but life pushes them to a line where they don't know how to get back from. One neglects his family, the other would do anything to save them. So what is the line between good and bad? The reason I am conflicted about this movie, is that it puts a one villain to the story, who then makes everyone else look better, both good and bad guys. But I actually LOVE that I cannot wrap my head around my feelings in this movie, because that what life really is: complicated. It is impossible for me to decide if I was rooting for the right person and I like that.
Our own moral compass might not always be the best way to proceed, it is, however, how we will proceed every time and in every case.
Watch it? I think it is a wonderfully made movie with some incredible star quality on the screen.
I think it simply went unnoticed and then it disappeared because of the terrible human being that Chris Brown turned out to be... and it is a shame, because the rest of the cast should have kept it afloat. I know, because if I went and cut out all of his scenes, this movie would still be awesome. Maybe they should do that...
Until the next item on my list!
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