Criminal Activities: Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
Four friends stumble into a deal too good to refuse but when the investment goes bad, they learn that part of their funding came from a notoriously ruthless crime boss… and it’s payback time. Now they must successfully kidnap a family member of a rival kingpin in order to erase the life-threatening debt. In way over their heads, if they can complete the assigned task without screwing up, they just might escape with their lives.
After reading through the synopsis my first thought was “Ok, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a movie like this before.”. After actually watching the movie I came to the conclusion that I have not seen a movie like this at all and not only that but it’s pretty damn great. The story is one of those that has very familiar beats but as soon as you think you know where it’s going it takes a detour. There are moments where the film has these comedic tendencies that caught my attention. These were nice little additions to the movie that lightened the mood just a tad but didn’t take anything away from the pacing or intensity of the film. The cast was great together and had some really good chemistry. I have to give a lot of credit to Dan Stevens and his performance though. He’s normally the good looking, suave guy but he found a way to Screech (yes, I used it as a verb) his way into this role. He was extremely convincing to the point where I was legitimately getting annoyed by his actions. John Travolta was also great as well. I’m a big fan of the times that he plays villains so this was a treat for me. There’s something about him being a bad guy that just seems really cool and I think it shows that he can go wild and stretch his acting ability. I’m extremely impressed with Jackie Earle Haley‘s directorial debut and I think that if he continues down this journey then we could end up with some phenomenal work from the actor. I say, go check this out if you get a chance. It’s a damn good caper that will keep you guessing till the end. 7/10
Special Features:
Deleted Scenes – There are only 2 scenes here and they really don’t offer anything extra.
Interview With John Travolta and Jackie Earle Haley – A nice little feature with Travolta and Haley discussing the film and their experience.
