This is a low budget movie that works the grit in an attempt to seem indie and on-point. But it tries too hard at that and comes across as hackneyed.
Nothing really new here. A charismatic Father Figure, who is at his core a sociopath, has built a bunch of troubled low life teenagers into his make shift family and criminal gang. Ronnie Blevins is not boring to watch, his Mack Monroe character has the latent rage, and the intelligence , but he is not overly charismatic. We get a decent performance from Sif Saga, as a jaded trick turning hottie, and Baldar Thor as clinging-to-decency Kody. They both seem to fit their characters. The other gang members all suffer from a lack of screen time, character development and presence.
Annalynne McCord is also underutilized as the police detective hunting for the gang. There is a slightly more than implied lesbian relationship between Detective Ellis and Lexi, that seem completely gratuitous, and it is the first of a number of plot points that just fizzle out into nothing.
And that is the problem with this movie. The Gang seems to be bent on harming a major drug dealer's operation...but no real explanation as to why, or how Mack wouldn't get that it would bring a Mafia down on his head looking for revenge. ...Oh and they catch him and for some reason let him go. And when a Gang member is killed, they walk up to the crime scene, thus identifying themselves to the Police for no reason. Mack seems smart, but then he does pointless things a lot. The kids for the most part have some explanation for their actions.
For a while it looked like Veronica Burgess's Lisa character wanted revenge, but then I guess she was satisfied with what she got.
In the End, we see the sign. Eternity In Hell lasts a Long Time, and our lost characters walk off into that Eternity. Ultimately we learned nothing.
All in all, I can say this movie held my attention and is not really boring. It has just been done better in the past, and the weakness is more in the writing of the story than anything else. Bleak and depressing yes, intelligent and insightful...not really.
Nothing really new here. A charismatic Father Figure, who is at his core a sociopath, has built a bunch of troubled low life teenagers into his make shift family and criminal gang. Ronnie Blevins is not boring to watch, his Mack Monroe character has the latent rage, and the intelligence , but he is not overly charismatic. We get a decent performance from Sif Saga, as a jaded trick turning hottie, and Baldar Thor as clinging-to-decency Kody. They both seem to fit their characters. The other gang members all suffer from a lack of screen time, character development and presence.
Annalynne McCord is also underutilized as the police detective hunting for the gang. There is a slightly more than implied lesbian relationship between Detective Ellis and Lexi, that seem completely gratuitous, and it is the first of a number of plot points that just fizzle out into nothing.
And that is the problem with this movie. The Gang seems to be bent on harming a major drug dealer's operation...but no real explanation as to why, or how Mack wouldn't get that it would bring a Mafia down on his head looking for revenge. ...Oh and they catch him and for some reason let him go. And when a Gang member is killed, they walk up to the crime scene, thus identifying themselves to the Police for no reason. Mack seems smart, but then he does pointless things a lot. The kids for the most part have some explanation for their actions.
For a while it looked like Veronica Burgess's Lisa character wanted revenge, but then I guess she was satisfied with what she got.
In the End, we see the sign. Eternity In Hell lasts a Long Time, and our lost characters walk off into that Eternity. Ultimately we learned nothing.
All in all, I can say this movie held my attention and is not really boring. It has just been done better in the past, and the weakness is more in the writing of the story than anything else. Bleak and depressing yes, intelligent and insightful...not really.
