The most disturbing thing about this movie is that it happened. I don't mean that the movie happened, but that the whole Beltway Sniper thing happened. While we were watching, my wife commented, "Did this really happen?" I said that it did, and that these were the DC Snipers. She suddenly had slightly more respect for the seemingly implausible movie.
Isaiah Washington plays the father figure (even though he is not biologically the father) who has a grand plan of sewing discord and mayhem by proving to people that life is fragile, and that the entire US ecosystem can be upended by introducing uncertainty in day-to-day life. More than thinking it can happen, he insists that it MUST happen in order for people to... to... see, that's where the writing here gets a bit fuzzy. His ultimate plan, other than to simply destabilize everyone's life, seems to be nothing more than to get revenge on the world for wrongs he perceives being committed against him. If there is one part of this movie I would really hit hard in this review, it would be that they had Isaiah do a great job as the madman mastermind without ever having him tell his real motivations and end goals.
Tequan Richmond plays the young man who Isaiah takes under his wing to indoctrinate into his anarchistic line of thinking. He is very withdrawn and easily manipulated, and he plays the character to a T. Even his mannerisms give the impression of a withdrawn kid who always needed a parent to guide him, but he never had one.Ultimately, he's the one who takes the shots from the trunk of the blue Caprice.
The story has other characters in it, but it is really about these two and their relationship. It's an interesting dynamic, and it's strange to see how life can be taken with such detached callousness even from a young man who actually has a lot of emotions.
One very odd scene is where they are walking through a grocery store, and Isaiah lays out his plan to kill people and the way he would structure it to destabilize any pattern or illusions that the public had. It's odd to think that anyone could have this conversation in a grocery store with no one overhearing or batting an eye about it.
Direction was good
Acting was great
Dialogue was good
Pacing was very slow
Story was good
3.25/5