 Rating: R, Time: 2hr 20min, Director: Christian Gudegast, Cast on IMDb What did you think of the 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes? Again, you have a bunch of elitist critics thinking a heist movie should be super in depth on the characters. Not really, what type of meth are these fools smoking? This is basically the thug version of Ocean's Eleven. Of course, the characters are gritty, meaner and likely more closer to real heist crew than that baked up beans souffle. If you are going to rob a bank, you've made bad decisions in life like this crew has done. Its made of ex marines, a bad ass driver bartender and Samoan communications guy. Its a total guy movie although tons of females came as well. Some people have said the audience is ghetto? Hell ya. That's what you want. As Ralphie May, RIP said you got to go once a year to a black inner city theater to get your money worth before the movie starts. I heard plenty of funny ass commentary to the film to enhance the effect. Some guy said when we all came out, "I never saw 18,000 tall people come out of the theater!". Who the hell thinks about how tall the audience is? LOL. It was pretty hilarious, especially all the crazy hairstyles as Ralphie May would say. Of course, having two major black actors in the film drew them in: 50 cent and Ice Cube's son, O'shea Jackson Jr. Also, how many films actually have major black singers in the films, almost zero, so there is a real desire to see people of color in the cinema that Hollywood consistently fails and plays into stereotypes as well like the one token black guy dying in the film. Hence the reason for "Token" in South Park. In this film, only one of the black guy dies. Of course, with a criminal crew robbing the US Federal Mint, most of them would likely be caught by the overwhelming force there to protect the money. Which characters did they develop the best?
It makes sense that most of the character development is on the two ring leaders of the gangs. One is Nick, the lead on the criminal sheriff's department that has been corrupted by years of being on the force. He hangs around strippers, is running on the rails of his marriage and abundantly cocky in his power. Basically he has the hubris, that he fought against in 300. None of that purity is here, but a gritty half dirty cop wanting to bag bad guys no matter what. The second "bad" guy is Merrimen, an ex-marine turned criminal intent on robbing as many banks as possible in a military fashion. You keep wondering why he turned against the core of a marine to protect intregrity, not steal and not lie. Seems a contradiction in process. In the end, they kind of reveal why he has turned against the marine code to form his own code within thieves. He still tries to avoid killing civilians and is intent on stealing from the man no matter the cost.  What did you think of Donnie? O'shea gets to play this guy roped into a gang as the fast driver and ends up way deeper in the crap than he can imagine. He starts as a bartender that knows both the cops and the gang, which is how the cops figure out he is part of the Merrimen gang. They kidnap him and force him to become the snitch on the crew. Unbeknownst to the cops, Merrimen uses this fact against the cops to help deflect the cops from arresting the crew in the major heist. In the end, he is revealed to be another character altogether, which changes the direction of the film completely. It also ensures the possibility of a sequel as well if the movie does well in the box office. Have you done any art based on heists? Not really. I did do a take on the Matrix, which is kind of the "bad" guys against the "good" guys, which gets turned on its head. In my painting, I portray Morpheus, who is the enlightened one, who ends up discovering the chosen one in the fight against the machines. Since high tech companies are developing AI, killer drones and running robots, that future may be closer than we know. In my art, I show the connections to the real secret warm war China and US are having over patents despite the close trade relationships forged by Nixon.  Ride the Dragon on the Plains of Slaves - 24x48 inches
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