★★☆☆☆
UNLESS you’re a die-hard consumer of any and all macho action crime thrillers then there’s not much to recommend in this overly familiar and undercooked film that we’ve seen done before and far, far better.
Jamie Foxx plays tough Las Vegas police detective Vincent Downs who when we first see him is pulling off a daring robbery of 25 kilos in cocaine. We soon discover that he has been undercover on a case for the past two years – that’s if you believe his side of the story, which Michelle Monaghan’s ruthless Internal Affairs agent most definitely does not.
When Vincent’s 16-year-old son is suddenly kidnapped by nefarious mob boss and casino owner Rubino (Dermot Mulroney) who has been unwittingly ripped off, he exacts a plan to get him back. This puts him in the crosshairs of Rob Novak (Scoot McNairy), the hot-headed son of a dangerous crime family looking to retrieve his stolen bag of drugs.
There’s something to be said for its relentless pace which barely stops for breath and it does mine some tension here and there. But director Baran bo Odar (Who Am I, The Silence) employs a punishingly repetitive obsession with violence at every turn, and no real style or panache to it; most of the action consists of guns being knocked out of people’s hands and bodies hurled over tables. Rinse, repeat and snooze, no matter what the title says.
It never finds a personality of its own, content to nab from the here, there and everywhere of other, far superior crime fare, including the 2010 French-language film of which this is a half-hearted remake. The violence amidst a crowded club – not to mention the presence of Foxx – brings to mind Michael Mann’s Collateral and just makes you wish you were watching that instead.
It’s hindered by Foxx’s flat and unengaging central performance, while a very solid supporting cast are underserved by trite and one-note characters. They populate a morosely violent drug-fuelled mystery plot that will be easily solvable to all but complete novice viewers of this sort of dirty cop movie mould.
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