One may ask why see '211' in the first place? Well, there is an appreciation for action films and bank heist films can be entertaining. Was also part of my "watching as many 2018 films as possible" quest (one of many quests) and although Nicolas Cage is one of the seemingly most hated actors he has done some good films and performances when the material is good and when he reigns in a little more than he usually does.
Having said that, was not expecting an awful lot from '211' having heard a lot of negative things about it, and from recent experience films with negative word of mouth and ratings have turned out to be that bad. Seeing it anyway out of curiosity and as a 2018 film completest, '211' sadly is another one of those films. One of Cage's worst ever films and perhaps his worst since 'The Wicker Man' (though that is perhaps debatable. Always try to look out for the good things in bad films, but '211' has none of them, all of it is bad and ugly even at its worst.
It is hard to know where to begin with the criticisms for '211'. An obvious starting point would be the acting. Most of it is more wooden than marionettes with a complete lack of personality or engagement, going through the motions is being generous. And then on the other end of the scale there is Cage in a performance that is hammier than one finds in a gammon roast dinner, not as bad as his infamously terrible performance in 'The Wicker Man' but goodness isn't it close.
They did have to work from a dire script, with a complete lack of natural flow, more cheese than the largest cheeseburger and filled to the brim with unintentional hilarity. As well as caricatured archetypes passing for characters that have no realism to them whatsoever, basically a clichéd battle of personality-deprived good characters and hammy and flat villains.
'211' is yet another film that has its characters being bland or obnoxious with frustrating and illogical character behaviours and vague motivations. The stupidity of the villains is unreal. Not excusing the bad acting in case one is wondering, there are many examples of actors and actresses who at least try, and a good deal of them succeed, to make the most with what they're given, unless the role is so horrendously written that even the best of them would make a hash out of it and there have been many examples of that too.
Even the production values are not good, it constantly looks like it was made in a rush and looks cheaper than some films with lower budgets. It's also intrusively scored and dully directed, but it's the story that is the biggest flaw. No tension, no suspense, no excitement and no sense of fun.
Story-wise, everything is so over-familiar, both simplistic and confused and so erratic in pace, with non-stop implausibility and has goofs so numerous and so glaring it insults the intelligence and muddles the film. The action is chaotically edited, clumsily choreographed and is just so bland.
Concluding, a disaster and this is a genuine review from someone who did see it with no prejudicial feelings against it. 1/10 Bethany Cox
