El río de la ira

I could not stand to watch more than 20 minutes of this movie with such a terrible plot, acting, and terrible everything. Very sad to see a acting legends like Robert DeNiro and John Malkovich stoop this low to be in a B movie and a terrible one at that. DeNiro is so old which makes him a very unbelievable law enforcement officer and at that age probably couldn't chase a suspect for more than a few yards. The rest of the supporting actors and actresses well very average as well which did not help this movie at all. Directing, cinematography, location with all terrible. Ocean City hope that Robert DeNiro and John Malkovich malkovich well not participate in any more of this type of movies.

This film had so much potential - interesting plot with lots to explore and expand on, amazing cast, good cinematography........ Let down by over the top and rushed action scenes and not enough detail and explanation to make it more than just ordinary.

With this calibre of actors and the basic idea and setting this has the potential to be so much more powerful and riveting.

There are elements that remind me of films such as 'Out of the Furnace' and 'No country for Old Men' but I feel these succeed through taking their time to detail the characters and provide an overview of where they're from and where they're going which means we are more invested in them and the story.. Apologies for not being more positive but this is a genre fav and I wa hoping for so-much more !

'I've seen way way worse' from another reviewer... so this is to be taken, HOW? As if this movie is actually worth one's time? I guess it depends on our mood. I don't know if it was the same reviewer who said that 'people who will criticize this movie probably enjoy dumb comic book movies'. And i guess that means that all comic book movies are dumb.

Or does it indicate more about the reviewer?

In any case...this movie is NOT cringeworthy...it's decent 'paint by number'. It's just funny to hear DeNiro trying to do a southern accent. Malkovich does a LITtle bit better...i have not a CLUE as to why DeNiro did this film. Some people wrote 'for the paycheck'. Hmmmm...yeah. Because he hasn't made anything from his other films, i guess...and anyways...why should he be beholden to ANY of us 'spectators'... i think the movie, though not any great work of art, might be therapeutical to the many who were affected by opiates, in any form, over the last few decades...this, of course includes relatives.

While revenge isn't, necessarily, the best form of payback(i believe in letting someone's choices catch up with them...but i'm not asking anyone else to follow this way of dealing with being wronged), revenge MOVIES can be a great outlet...high or lowbrow...doesn't matter.

Ruby Red (Willa Fitzgerald) and Shelby John (Jack Huston) get engaged and want to get clean of the drugs they were taking. Ruby Red wants to be baptized, too, and start life clean and free. But a drug dealer gets to Ruby Red. Shelby is beside himself and goes to kill all the drug dealers. Sheriff Church (Robert DeNiro and his deputy need to stop this killing spree.

Probably Bruce Willis should have played the Sheriff as DeNiro's performance looked a lot like a Wills slow walking gig in this low budget story. DeNiro had very little to do except near the end when he confronts Shelby with a gun.

No, most of the story is all Ruby Red and Shelby and later mostly Shelby as he goes gunning for drug dealers. A kind of surprising tidbit is when the movie is all Ruby Red and Shelby, we really didn't care for either of them. Whose fault is that? Yes, we wanted them to get clean of drugs, but when they were going through the withdrawals we just wanted those scenes to be over with and they went on for too long a time.

Directors these days are finding more brutal ways of killing and torturing people and this promotes unease in my wanting to watch an entertaining story. Cringe-worthy is a good word watching this movie.

Notables: John Malkovich as Peter, a supporter of the Church, but there is more to Peter as you will see; Clay Wilcox as Darius, a drug dealer; Quavo as Coyote as a drug runner.

This is watchable especially if you FF thru the killing and torturer scenes. Maybe this would have been better if the Sheriff didn't know that Shelby was the one killing drug dealers, but then again everyone knows everyone in a small town such as this was. (4/10)

Violence: Yes Sex: No.

Nudity: No.

Humor: No.

Language: Yes.

Rating: C.

I only gave 4 stars but not because this is a bad movie. On the contrary it was quite entertaining for a run-of-the-mill revenge thriller. I was impressed with the cast, especially Willa Fitzgerald. The story, dialog and visuals were above my expectations.

The problem with this movie is the sound and music. It was difficult to make out some of the dialog and without subtitles I struggled to understand what was being said some of the time. Increasing the volume didn't help at all. The music used was oddly melancholic and very loud compared to the ambient sound. After 20 mins I restarted using high quality headphones but that wasn't much better. I probably would have given 6 stars but the poor sound quality bothered me too much.