Starring: Gerard Butler, Pablo Schreiber, O’Shea Jackson Jr., 50 Cent, Meadow Williams
Director: Christian Gudegast
Release date: 2nd February 2018
In Gardena, South Los Angeles, a daring bank robbery takes place. The robbers are well disguised, well equipped and ruthless. After the crime they return to their hideout in Wilmington to re-group. Meanwhile a group of LA’s finest, a band of Elite cops, led by Nick ‘Big Nick’ O’Brien (Gerard Butler) are on their trail. They track down one of the gang members, a young barman called Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) and basically torture him for information. He claims to be just a driver who doesn’t know anything. They don’t believe him and say that he is going to find out info for them. They know that a guy called Merriman (Pablo Schreiber) is at the centre of it all but up til now, he’s been untouchable. A little while later, Nick returns home to his family in San Pedro, and because of a recent incident, his wife walks out on him and takes his two young daughters with her. Nick is at his lowest but knows he must track down this ruthless band of robbers, whatever the cost…
It’s a little known fact but until recently, Los Angeles was the bank robbery capital of the world; 2400 a year, roughly 44 a week. It’s only in the last few years that things have begun to change.
The movie is a very gritty drama, with high octane action from start to finish. That being said, it’s an extremely ‘bloke-y’ movie, full of lots of clichés. In saying that, I mean it seems very much geared towards a male audience; violence, obligatory strip club scene, gunfire all over the place. The bullet count alone in this movie is pretty astonishing. Gerard Butler’s character, Nick is one very tough fella. They try to show different facets to his life but at the end of the day, all he cares about is his job and bringing down the bad guys.
As I said, this is a very bloke-y movie and definitely not a good date-night choice. I did enjoy the movie though, complete with its twists and turns and I think that a lot of people will really enjoy this film. I do like Gerard Butler as an actor, but he seems to be getting a little bit typecast these days. Lots of ‘action’ roles but maybe that’s not such a bad thing in this present climate. He does fit the character of Nick to a T, but I just feel that he could be doing so much more as an actor. There are so many male stereotypes in this movie that unfortunately it makes a lot of it pretty unbelievable.
If you’re male and looking for a movie to go and see with a load of mates, then this could be the one for you. There’s a very nice twist towards the end which is probably the best bit of the whole movie.
Overall: 7/10
