Somewhere in this low-budget actioner is the kernel of a decent story. But it's buried deep and is suffocated by some bizarre direction and absurd writing choices.
There are plenty of films about killers and plenty about revenge or the need to do something at all costs to protect someone or something they care about, but all the best ones at least make an effort to portray the lead with some sort of redeeming feature. Frank Grillo, usually so watchable, is essentially just an amoral dirtbag. The moment he kills policemen and it's clear that he'll murder any innocent bystanders - which he does frequently - any reason to root for this guy is gone. He doesn't kill innocents because he's trying to save his daughter, he kills because he's a killer. But there's no real backstory about why he became this way so he just seems like a sadistic prick.
This guy even ends up turning his own daughter into a killer, and it's made clear by his ex-wife he's a terrible dad anyway.
There are some genuinely good performances in Little Dixie (a title that even when you understand why it's called that still makes little sense), which raises it marginally above other budget genre films like this. There's an attempt to add some quirk and coolness in places, that usually falls flat but a couple of times works extremely well. But it's still a bit derivative, like a film student who's been given a project to make an homage to a film that's an ode to Tarantino; it's two steps removed.
The corrupt politician unwittingly - or perhaps with plausible deniability - being in bed with a cartel that he decides to pursue too hard could have been something appealing, but it really serves no purpose other than to create a weird kidnap scenario and motivation for a lot of rather unimaginative killing.
Probably worth skipping. Must do better.
There are plenty of films about killers and plenty about revenge or the need to do something at all costs to protect someone or something they care about, but all the best ones at least make an effort to portray the lead with some sort of redeeming feature. Frank Grillo, usually so watchable, is essentially just an amoral dirtbag. The moment he kills policemen and it's clear that he'll murder any innocent bystanders - which he does frequently - any reason to root for this guy is gone. He doesn't kill innocents because he's trying to save his daughter, he kills because he's a killer. But there's no real backstory about why he became this way so he just seems like a sadistic prick.
This guy even ends up turning his own daughter into a killer, and it's made clear by his ex-wife he's a terrible dad anyway.
There are some genuinely good performances in Little Dixie (a title that even when you understand why it's called that still makes little sense), which raises it marginally above other budget genre films like this. There's an attempt to add some quirk and coolness in places, that usually falls flat but a couple of times works extremely well. But it's still a bit derivative, like a film student who's been given a project to make an homage to a film that's an ode to Tarantino; it's two steps removed.
The corrupt politician unwittingly - or perhaps with plausible deniability - being in bed with a cartel that he decides to pursue too hard could have been something appealing, but it really serves no purpose other than to create a weird kidnap scenario and motivation for a lot of rather unimaginative killing.
Probably worth skipping. Must do better.