The Collective

Investigating and bringing to justice human traffickers is a good idea for a plot. I am sure it would make a real good movie someday. Add to that a kind of "MI double-trouble rip off" hostage person has intel about out agents and we need to get him before others get him. OK, that could work too.

But.... it doesn't work in this mess of a movie. Its a yawn. That new gay MacGyver kid could have shined here, he does have a casual manner that could work. But...his "stealth" intro segment is so bad, he is stalking but crunching leaves and ground cover under every step as he approaches his target area. The baddies are 25 yards away, I guess that's the tragic-I mean magic of movies. He's a loud ninja against deaf henchmen. The combat knife bad-girl was the worst actress I've ever seen. There are a lot of tactical errors, hit squads approach in vans right up to the target house... with headlights on? This base of operations house has no surveillance? Of any kind? It's that important. Oh, boy.

Tonight, in truth, watched it to see just how bad it was, so I could write a review here. The thing that boggles the mind is the lineup of cast actors. Poorly used name talent here. Top grade actors are being put into these looser productions - there is a lot of them as of late! Don't understand the studio/production financing mindset that green lit these, Do they really think they will make any money in return??

The Collective...stupidity~? No, flat out stupidity.

This nonsense should be studied in film school on how to not make a film. A fifth grade drama class could write and direct a more entertaining film. It took two writers to come up with a story that's been done thousands of times before, and all much better. The story was so cliched, dull, generic, and predictable, and dragged out endlessly with horribly slow pacing and an uneventful narrative, that the normally comfortable runtime felt endless.

At the halfway mark, I felt like I spent half a day binging a boring TV series. Then you have director Tom DeNucci manage to make the very few action scenes boring and cringeworthy, and he clearly failed to direct his cast properly, especially Tyrese Gibson, who looked and sounded bored and like he was falling asleep. To call this nonsense a B-film is an insult to B-films. Whoever funded this mess clearly needed a tax write-off. Don't get drawn in by the few well-known cast, them being in this does zero to elevate this film, and I'm sure they're regretting it, no matter how big their paycheck was. It's a generous 3/10 all going to Don Johnson and Ben-Victor, the only two actors that held their own even with the terrible writing and directing they had to work with.

I wanted to like this film, I really did. Putting Lucas Till and Tyrese Gibson on screen together it could've been so good. But the script feels lazily written and the action sequences are awful. There is no intention and no proper camera framing, action scenes have to be framed so that you follow one central character, and the camera tracks him moving, the way it's done in John Wick or Accident Man.

Then also there is no pizazz it feels more like a CW TV show than a film and even they have you more engaged. Also lastly there is zero character development, like who is Sam, why should we like, we just see him fight, if you can call it that, the fight choreography was limited, and the stunt team came across like they were told to treat it like a Karate exam aka act like a dummy.

Also why isn't Tyrese Gibson hinted at you don't find out about him until you do, it's like suddenly he's there. Quite frankly the film just feels lazy, like someone was making a point or like a half done project for history class at high-school, about independent spy organisations.

Beware ! This is NOT a Don Johnson picture. They tricked me into watching because (the still cool) Don Johnson was on the poster. But he is nowhere to be seen in this picture. Blink once with your eyes and you will miss him.

This is a 100% C-movie. Not a B-movie, but a C-movie. It is ridiculously terrible. Such a waste of time of writing this review, but I wanna warn other Don Johnson fans, that they dont fall into the same trap I fell into.

Don Johson still rocks at his old age. He recently made "High Heat", which was surprisingly good fun and thrilling to watch. Action was solid. Some good jokes. My advice: go watch that movie if you are into Don Johnson, instead of this rubbish product called "The Collective"...

Yeah, I barely made it halfway.

Ruby Rose is just terrible in everything; I have no idea how she got the golden ticket to Hollywood or how she keeps getting gigs. I guess when your first feature film as a lead is deemed unwatchable (Batwoman) you will take what you can get.

I have no clue who the lead guy is, but he seriously looks like the Team America version of Matt Damon.

Now the sad part for me is seeing Don Johnson in this dreck.

Now I know how my parents and grandparents felt when they started seeing the actors and actresses, they loved growing up taking roles in awful films at the end of their careers. :/

If you can make it all the way through this, I commend you.