BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
The cover of this straight-to-DVD movie makes it seem like The Rock is the lead of it. I’m a fan of Dwayne Johnson from way back. I had the pleasure of being in attendance of his first Wrestlemania match and have been supportive since. He was a fixture in my childhood and the more I learn about the man behind the persona the more I like him. He’s just one of those talented people. I once heard someone theorize that some people are born with no talents because people like The Rock are born and are given multiple talents. The idea is that it all balances out. If this idea is true, there are about a dozen people out there with no talents at all because The Rock can wrestle, act, sing, present, and do just about anything the guy sets himself to do. He’s not the best actor out there right now, but you can bet your ass he’s going to work on it. He continues to get better and better at acting. Despite the fact he’s not the main lead, he’s the reason I watched this movie to begin with. The movie actually stars Liam Hemsworth. He plays a normal dude who is trying to make ends meet and make sense of life. He has a loud mouth asshole friend that he just puts up with. Eventually he gets a job as guard for an armored car depository. He realizes how easy it is to take the money, which leads to him and his asshole friend taking the money. It goes too far and shit goes down. It’s not a predictable movie at all, but there are points where things just seem way too crazy to be real or not at least embellished. But still, it’s a “based on a true story” type of movie so we’re supposed to just accept it and believe it. The detective that’s trying to make sense of everything is played by Dwayne Johnson. He does a good job, but doesn’t really have much to work with in the character. The main focus is Liam Hemsworth. I’ve never paid attention to the dude before, but he was a really solid actor in this. He carried the movie very well. Along with him, his asshole friend is played by Michael Angarano. I remember him as a kid actor, specifically the kid in “Almost Famous”. He is great in this movie. I hated him and wanted to punch him in the face repeatedly, but only because his character was so abrasive and annoying. It was really well done. Liam’s love interest is played by the underappreciated Emma Roberts. She was fine, but didn’t really have much to do. There were plenty of others who stood out too including Tamera Mowry, Nikki Reed, Shenae Grimes, Chris Diamantopoulous, Michael Rispoli, James Ransone, and Jerry Ferrara to name a few. All in all, it was a fun movie. The story was interesting, the acting was solid, the pacing was engaging, and the movie in general was worth my time. When you see a straight to DVD/VOD movie you tend to adjust your expectations to a lower level. I did to that here, but I don’t think I had to. If you’re looking for a good action packed crime and drama movie about a hustle gone wrong then you should check this movie out. B
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