When did Quentin Tarantino become the target for every director? Yes, he's had some very good films, but he's had some real stinkers. And if the guy who created the style can't be consistently good, why do pretend Tarantinos think they will have big breakout hits when they are pale copies?
Maybe I'm being too harsh. Clearly, he had been influenced by Quentin, but he has a big heaping helping of Joe Carnahan's directing and writing style from Smokin' Aces. The problem is that the pacing is way too slow to meet either director's standards
I've lived in the South for nearly five years, and I don't think I really understand the thought processes behind their thinking sometime. I can tell you this, though - Barry Battles (the director) is using his knowledge of the more ingrained Southerners to exploit stereotypes and generally Hollywoodify this area of the country.
The only thing that could make this worse is if he had Billy Bob Thornton playing a bad-ass, a gang of whore mercenaries, a black gang of gun lovers, and a group of mercenary Native Americans wearing war paint and using arrows. But really, who would do that? I mean, Indians in war paint? Who has such two dimensional characters that they have to resort to one of the oldest stereotypes that Hollywood has been exploiting since its inception?
Again, I think I'm being too harsh. Maybe it's because I hate Michael Rapaport.
The movie was slow, predictable, and it really didn't bring anything new to the table. Maybe I'll go back and watch Smokin' Aces again just to get this out of my system.
1.5/5