A review from a regular old movie-lover

I wrote this for a site I'm working with, but I figured I would just toss it here in case anyone wants to read from a regular Joe - there might be spoilers below:

When a movie tries too hard, it's like you are witnessing a screenplay workshop on the TV. You can visualize the actor practicing how he's going to say the words, see the checkboxes why each scene is crafted, and where the story arcs start and stop. This is that movie. Simply put... it's cliched and insanely predictable.

Act 1 is about endearing the viewer to David, played with zero effort by Bobby Soto. The first five minutes shoves in the viewer's face that David has a perfect life - gorgeous wife, beautiful home, sweet kids, the works. On top of that David is clearly a good man. How do we know that? He employs his loser cousin, his mother is on a respirator, he gives back money to a guy who stole it because the thief's son is in the hospital. Within twenty minutes you realize he has a heart of gold and doesn't want violence. We get it - we're supposed to root for the guy. Just back off already.

The problem is David works as a collector for the Mexican mafia. It's fairly clear this is what he's going to lose or endanger. It's practically stamped on his forehead.

So surprise when a rival mob comes into the picture and dangles a deal in front of David - join us against your current employer or we will kill everyone you love. Knowing David is honest, a family man, and such a good person, does anyone believe he will betray his boss, who happens to be his uncle?

So clearly Act 1 is the buildup is to show what David is and has to lose. Sure enough, we get to act 2 where this happens and everything he loves is in peril. Now you have the last honest Mexican gangster backed into a corner with a family in danger... it's apparent what will happen in Act 3.

What the movie fails to decide is whether it wants to take itself seriously or not. Is this a tale of a man trying to balance his morality in a life of crime? Or is it more of an action film with over-the-top sentimentality, acting, and violence? The first half plays almost realistic, showing how this could actually be something that happens in Los Angeles and touches on the gang culture. However, once Act 2 starts it gets melodramatic and absurd, and it starts and ends with the villains. The big baddie, Conejo, is so evil-looking his own mother would disown him. Even worse is his female assassin, Gata. No joke, she doesn't say a word the whole movie. She instead gives sinister smirks and shoots oversized guns. These two people are straight out of a James Bond movie.

The directing is so bland it's practically cookie-cutter. Nothing new is brought to the table - we get the obligatory scenes with the couple in bed about to make love before the kids run in and ruin it, intense meetings in back rooms of nightclubs, and a whole lot of macho talk between people holding guns. There is a random scene in a judo studio that has no reason to be there. Later one it comes as no surprise it is referenced. There is a scene where David says to his wife she needs to get out of the house immediately. The camera has a close-up on her face and she says "I love you." It was like she had flashing yellow caution lights above her head that something bad was about to happen to her. There is the obligatory gunfight at the bad guy's lair slapped with the cookie-cutter ending of the hero and villain engaged in a fistfight in spraying water.

The casting is all wrong. Shia LaBeouf, who I actually enjoy in most things, is really stretching hard to play a heavy named Creeper. He's not bad in the role, but I just never believed he would be a cooler for a Mexican mafia tycoon. George Lopez of all people plays the boss, and he plays it straight. Here you have a famous stand-up comedian and you have him play it cold. Finally there is Bobby Soto, who looks too young and pretty for the role of David, and not believable as a father of four with an equally unbelievable young model wife. Soso plays it bland as he tries to balance a tough guy and a sensitive leading man. He doesn't really emote and you never feel the desperation on him. When he meets up with his children late in the movie he should be going through a spectrum of emotions, but instead he's monotone and stoic. Either better directing or a different, more polished actor would have crushed that scene.

There is a twist ending that gives a little more insight into David's past and motivation, but by then the viewer should either already be sympathetic to his journey or just waiting for the credits to roll. The movie should have decided what it wanted to be and stuck with it.