Locked Down

Bland, sometimes incomprehensible, story with an ending which truly makes no sense. Such a waste of excellent actors on such a boring, non-sensical story.

I was wondering how long it would take them before they came up with a Covid movie and apparently it's not even that long as we're still right in the middle of it. The movie is as boring as the whole supposed pandemia. I guess they made it in the beginning of the outbreak as the measures still seem to be mild, not really what we are imposed to do now. Locked Down is too long, much too long. It's a lot of talking, a lot of uninteresting conversations.. And even though the cast contains some well known actors it's still a mediocre movie. You have to wait till the very last part to have some crime, but even that wasn't satisfying. If you want to watch endless conversations between Chiwetel Ejiofor and Anne Hathaway then this is a movie for you. If on the other hand you're sick of hearing anything about Covid just skip this one, I wish I did.

"Being locked up is making it worse."

Welcome to January Movies! Today we have...a crime comedy written by someone with a bad track history and all the big stars who need new agents!

Locked Down follows a couple that attempts a high-risk, high-stakes jewelry heist at a department store during the lockdown due to covid-19. I'm pretty sure the trailer came out maybe a week before this was released on HBO Max. Doug Liman has made some good movies in the past so there was a chance for this. Unfortunately, Steven Knight wrote this and has only written one good movie, that being Locke, and his latest being the train wreck that is Serenity (2019). Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but this is a January movie so I'm just gonna say it how it is. This is exactly what I thought it would be and I'm fine with that. Most of the issues come from the writing. Surprisingly I did like the writing at the beginning. There was some clever dialogue concerning covid-19 and how it has affected jobs and mental health. Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor give fine performances. Their monologues were performed well and they worked nicely together. But soon enough, the writing fails. Nothing happens until the last 30 minutes, I'm not joking. The beginning had me interested because I thought that would be a small portion. Then it continues to lecture us on stuff we already know for about an hour before even getting to the thought of a heist movie. Then for another 30 minutes they discuss the heist stuff, but I already lost interest. When the heist takes place, I didn't even know it had started because I was sitting on my phone. I will say that it's entertaining then, but it's only 30 minutes of a basic heist. This two hour movie could've cut at the very least 30 minutes because I gained nothing other than being bored.

Doug Liman had a few moments of good directing. He just couldn't find a way to keep the audience engaged in the middle. Maybe this was trying for a realistic approach, but people don't want to see the boring parts that we forget about. There are so many cameos thrown throughout for us to point at the screen and say "Wow! That's someone famous!" But it feels almost exhausting seeing that many cameos. It feels like this was the movie that people decided to do to finish a contract. Anne Hathaway has faded pretty quick which is sad. She's a great actress and give a good performance almost every time. The movies just fail to draw in an audience or a positive review. In the end, this is a basic attempt at a comedy heist movie. With a few good moments and good lead performance, I found myself entertained from time to time, but I won't remember this in a year and I don't think anyone else will.

At first I thought it was going to be boring as some reviews say, but I found it quite entertaining and up to date. I have laughed and I have seen myself live some situations that are captured in the film quite well. Give it a chance and enjoy, a simple story that knows how to treat the covid and the day to day of the pandemic in a realistic and optimistic ay.

Like a funnier, less pretentious Malcolm and Marie.

The Paxton character alternates between hit or miss. He's often faux deep in a cringey way and I'm not sure if it's bad writing or it's self aware and poking fun. I've giving it the benefit of the doubt and leaning self-aware because Anne Hathaway feels like she's ETERNALLY rolling her eyes into the back of her head in this and I related. Either way I laughed.

On that point - I think I like Anne Hathaway more than most people. She was great in Colossal and she's the best thing about this. This film might not age amazingly (maybe it already hasn't?) but it was fun for what it was.