Um Dia de Crime

A solid crime/thriller movie (the comedic part is probably only the result of the seemingly clueless but lovable Jackie "Some" Powers, interpreted beautifully by Scott Caan). Great lead duo with strong-as-strontium Marianne Rendón, Powers' adventure companion and only chance to get his son back.

J. K. Simmons is very believable in his role of a ruthless "cowboy" (thumb down to the costume designer for the horrible cheap and too big hat, though...). Several reviewers have denounced the empty plot or the sub-plot involving Frank Grillo; on the contrary, this seamless story is very enjoyable to follow.

This felt like a cross between a high-school drama class production, and a vanity project for writer and lead actor Scott Caan to have his shirt unbuttoned or off wearing only underwear as much as possible. The writing, and especially the dialogue, was borderline infantile, and I'd say at least 80% of it was nonsense filler. There were only a few hits at humor, but it was mostly misses. The story did have some heart to it, but it was down-played and overshadowed by a lot of nonsense. Even Caan naming his character Jackie Powers was borderline cringe. Grillo's and Simmons' talents were underutilized and they both deserve to be in better films. Although they were the draw to this film, Marianne Rendon as Lola shined the most, and stole every scene. She was the only reason I even finished the film, because her character and performance were outstanding, and the reason I'm being generous with my 6/10. Swab's directing was decent given the flaccid script he had to work with, but with a more experienced screenwriter, this film could've been great.

The ONLY reason I decided to watch 'One Day as a Lion', was a glimpse of hunky Scott Caan in his underwear - with that gorgeous body - in the trailer!

I got to see more than enough of Scott's great body to satisfy me. His character, Jackie Powers, also turned out to be the only character in the film I cared about. The rest of the characters were all weak and unbelievable. And speaking of unbelievable, the premise had me raising an eyebrow on several occasions.

So, Jackie's thirteen year old son Billy has been imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, but everything about his son were so vague that I didn't fully grasp as to what the actual circumstances were. Jackie was asked by Pauly (Frank Grillo) to kill Walter Boggs (J. K. Simmons), who owes Pauly a great deal of money. Being an amateur - and a good guy - Jackie misses his target but accidentally kills a cook at a restaurant. He then kidnaps the waitress, Lola (Marianne Rendón).

Lola has a back story of her own. Her wealthy mother has cancer, and Lola can only inherit if she is married, so she helps Jackie, and tells her mother they are engaged. Nothing about this set-up was believable and can off course only work in a comedy that makes no sense... if that makes any sense...

As it turns out, Pauly didn't really want Walter dead; he just wanted to scare him. Ok, so now the story makes even less sense. What if Jackie succeeded? Surely Pauly didn't know Jackie was going to miss his target?? Oh, and speaking of Pauly, this was one of the worst characters ever! This was one of the weakest antagonists I've ever seen in a crime film - or any film for that matter. All this guy did was sit around swearing, stand around swearing, walking talking swearing... Every third word coming out of his mouth was f..k this, f..k that! And why was a physical actor like Frank Grillo cast as Pauly when this guy did absolutely nothing but talk-talk-talk-talk. There was not a single fight scene involving this antagonist.

Speaking of casting choices; why was Oscar winner J. K. Simmons cast as Walter? What on earth made him accept this part? He needs a new agent. Frank Grillo as well. Jackie was the only character keeping everything together, and I thought Scott Caan was well cast in this role.

There's some feel-good emotion here and there, but in general the film is just too ridiculous to matter. If it wasn't for Scott and his awesome body, 'One Day as a Lion' would have been a complete waste of time. The film became so preposterous towards the end that it was almost unwatchable. And all that foul language... no, thanks!

The headline names made me watch this one, and though it started out with a reasonably interesting premise, It became clear that the poor script and weak plot were not going to do anything remotely passable for anything entertaining.

It doesn't really go anywhere, and nothing much is done with the off-beat concept that's brandished in the beginning.

The story is very weak and I'm only surprised more wasn't done to wrest if from the vestiges of what can barely be considered mediocrity. By this I mean, there is nothing interesting about what happens nor does the story attempt to engage in anything which could be considered remotely interesting.

The script is "Meh" Here we have people engaged in what I often call 'Hollywood talk' where they speak to each other in sentences and style that we only ever see in movies, but doesn't amount to a hill of beans or bare any resemblance to verbal exchanges in real life.

The unfortunate consequences of the poor story and script mean there is nothing substantial to latch on to here, and despite the direction and performances being first rate (for the most part) they can't instil any excitement into what unfolds on screen.

This is one of those movies I would categorize as - A bunch of stuff happens then the movie ends - but nothing therein makes it an enjoyable entertainment piece.

It's not terrible, but its more something I'd have on in the background while training in my home gym or cooking in the kitchen. Definitely not something to sit down on the sofa and indulge in with a tub of popcorn and good company.

I think 3/10 is a fair score, maybe 4/10 at a push.

Aside from a couple Swab trademarks and easter eggs (eg; chocolate bar with a Candy Land wrapper), it didn't really feel like Swab to me. Seemed a bit misguided and going nowhere. The script is a weak point, nothing daring, and the plot fairly nonsensical. Some of the acting was pretty good by the big names, and it was shot pretty well, but I didn't personally care for the pretentious nonthingness that made up the script. Swab is a bit of an acquired taste, and he has done several better films than this one. Big name bit parts aside, Marianne Rendon was a standout performer here, even with this script.