2016, John Hillcoat (The Road) -- download
I can admit that for the entire time I knew of this movie's existence, I thought that the poster depicted a bank robbing squad that wore red, for a plot reason to be explained in the movie. But no, during the opening bank robbing sequence, one of their more greedy number grabs a bunch of money from a cart and stuffs it into a bag. And while they are fleeing, the dust/paint thing hidden inside the money goes off in the bag, billowing out into the vehicle, creating the look we see to your right. If only the greedy bastard had left the money where it was, and only stolen the safety deposit box they were sent in for, they would have escaped clean.
Mike (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Serenity) leads this band of bank robbers, made up of Russell (Norman Reedus, The Bikeriders) and his brother Gabe (Aaron Paul, Westworld), detective Franco (Clifton Collins Jr, Pacific Rim) and new recruit, detective Belmont (Anthony Mackie, Synchronic). Mike and Gabe are ex-military, Gabe is an addict ex-cop (he takes the money, to add to him being a bit of a screwup) and the other two are obviously very dirty cops. They are stealing the safety deposit box for the Atlanta Russian-Jewish mafia run by Irina (Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs). Instead of paying the crew, Irina has Russell tortured and murdered, as inspiration for Mike and his crew to take an even more dangerous job for her -- retrieving something from the Dept of Homeland Security holding facility. Rather than the movie being about Mike and his team taking revenge on Irina, its about them doing the second job despite them being down one man, and it being so much more dangerous and difficult. What they come up with is to initiate a 999 alert, called out when a cop is shot, drawing all available police to the shooting location. They are fine with killing a cop, even those who know they will probably know the man they will shoot.
Enter Detective Chris Allen (Casey Affleck, Ocean's Eleven), transferred into Belmont's unit and assigned as his partner -- the perfect victim. Also introduced is Allen's uncle Detective Jeffrey Allen (Woody Harrelson, Kate), who has been assigned to investigate the bank robbery.
Let me just say, there are a LOT of faces in this movie! Michael J Williams, Gal Gadot and Theresa Palmer even join as incidental characters. But for all the talent in this movie, it was ... just OK ? Its primarily about terrible things happening to bad people, which already diminishes my interest, and despite the billing, the heist elements play second fiddle to all the interactions. There is one incredibly well done scene, where the police raid "the projects", which adds an element of doubt and redemption to the "kill a cop" plan, and I cannot fault any of the performances, but... it was still lacking something. Sure, nihilism is Hillcoat's interest, but the moral quandries are not really ever fully explored, leaving us just watching all these terrible things happen with little resolve.
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