Fuera de la ley

5 stars is typically the minimum IMDB rating for a movie I will consider watching. I was going to give this 5 stars when it was 95% over, but the ending was good so I bumped it up to a 6. I'm surprised Gordon-Levitt agreed to be in this film. It had a low budget, 'B' movie type of feel, something that would go straight to streaming only, or a TV movie. Not bad, but not the quality I typically associate with him. It just felt cheap. I'm not sure if it was the acting, flimsy dialog, the screenplay or the somewhat predictable series of events. But movie just seemed a bit goofy. It was decent, held my attention, but seemed like it was missing something. I do appreciate that it was light hearted and had a pretty good ending. The ending was probably the most realistic part of the whole film. It's rare in Hollywood to have an ending where everyone got what they deserved, albeit an extreme version of justice.

After watching Greedy People, it feels like the kind of film that made you believe there was more in store, from its pulpy premise. The keyword here is "made you believe." Unfortunately, the promise ends at being thoroughly engaging and not much else. You already know from Act One that none of the characters are likeable, trustworthy-and that would've been totally fine if it were only meant to be a harmless comedy. The film gets darker with each passing scene, and the humour basically transitions into a standard thrill-fest. Joseph Gordon-Levitt puts in a good show, and so does Lily James (did anyone else notice how she ate from the same spoon she fed her dog with?). The rest are functional, playing their respective roles without going overboard-it was still hard to buy into Himesh Patel as a cop.

I really wanted to believe there was more to one particular angle (revealing it would be spoiler-ish) about "respecting borders." That had the potential to really up the comedy quotient, yet it's not even explored. The ending also feels rushed (i.e. For a 1h 52m flick), with a resolution that just doesn't hold a lot of weight. There are a lot of coincidental happenings in the third act, making the plot threads easier to tie up sans emotional heft. A film like this needs the deep, character-driven approach (which it tries to some extent)-where one bad decision really wears down the leads. Not a bad film by any measure, though you'd wish there was better detailing to the key characters.

Do yourself a big favor and skip the trailer. This is a fairly dark movie but I suspect the marketing department didn't quite know how to present it. So they put the lighter/funnier moments in the trailer and turned it loose, hoping for the best.

The movie itself was quite intriguing. A wide assortment of characters, of varying moral character, end up on a slippery downward slope of their own doing.

Excellent cinematography with good acting all around. Tim Blake Nelson? What can I say? I'd watch him read the phone book and he was superb as a slimeball.

Definitely worth watching, just be aware the trailer painted something a bit lighter.

There is enough going on here to keep you involved. A bunch of people chasing a bag of money and mayhem ensues. The only problem is they never dive deeply into any one character including the mains. Its hard to feel something for people you don't know.

At one point, I was cheering on the hit-men because they were way more interesting than the normies. None of the actors really had a chance to shine because the scenes were a bit chaotic and there was little substantive dialogue. The actress playing the secretary was good. I remember her from Billions and other films.

5 stars - you won't be bored but barely worth the time to type this up.

This movie sneaked up on me and surprised me how much I enjoyed it. This is a tale about deception, greed and true human emotions and is very cleverly wrapped up in a Tarantino esq story which jumps back and forth in time to show the lead up to an event which is the back bone of the story. Its not so much a 'who dunnit' as its clear who has done what but the events which unravel around it keep you guessing with who and why. Not so much a comedy as it is a drama with some darkly humorous moments.

The cast is excellent. Im never a fan of casting English actors into roles which require thick American accents but Himesh Patel and Lily James do an admirable job. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the stand out performer portraying a slightly unhinged and chaotic character. Certainly a role I haven't seen him perform before.