This is a 2008 film (street January 15th) which went straight to DVD. It's
an action film about a pleasant, naive young couple who take a big risk while struggling through poverty. She's working
in a supermarket. He's an Iraq vet with an assault conviction which makes it
difficult for him to get any job at all. Because of their restricted cash
flow, they live in an apartment building so run-down and infested with crime
that they are terrorized by their own neighbors, some gangbangers who steal
their possessions with impunity.
One day the gangbangers get into a massive shoot-out with some dirty feds,
and the Iraq vet stumbles upon the scene, which seems to be nothing but
corpses and a satchel full of money, which he expropriates opportunistically.
Unfortunately for him, one of the corpses is not quite dead yet, and is a
lunatic crooked agent played by Christian Slater channeling The Joker. Slater
tracks the fugitive couple through a few states, and they finally decide to
return the money to get him off their back - straight swap, money for freedom.
Slater, being quite the little Iago, likes to be evil just for the sheer joy
of it, so he is planning to take the money and kill them as well. The
Albuquerque police also figure into the mix, since a savvy local detective
immediately figures out that the young couple will probably be killed
needlessly by the ruthless, lawbreaking feds. This leads up to a three-way
chase and a final shoot-out with guns and shotguns blazing.
It's a routine and predictable script of no special merit, but I found it
watchable because the couple is extremely naive and likeable, while Slater's
character is deranged enough to provide some menace.
If you are not familiar with our grading system, you need to
read the
explanation, because the grading is not linear. For example, by
our definition, a
C is solid and a C+ is a VERY good movie. There are very few Bs
and As. Based on our descriptive system, this film is a:
