Admittedly, actors are drawn to scripts with no real idea how their craft will manifest itself on the finished product but, omg, at some point through this mess of a film should 2 seasoned actors say to themselves (or each other) "this sucks....maybe we should up our game and salvage a little price" but, alas, no.
Tough to know where to start but, the whole hokey "we need to cut back our expenditure" conversation over breakfast sets the tone....the gruff Bruce Willis only has to say "morning" to his neighbour but, doesn't look at him and instead glares at the ground as if to say, these 2 neighbours don't get on (yet they do...they are buddies, friends) so, why have Willis glaring as if he may have something to do with what's about to unfold....misdirect maybe or just overacting? you be the judge.
The actual robbery itself.....apart from shooting the security guard (for no other reason than to tell us that this guy is evil and merciless....why would he do that....why not disarm him and tie him up?) phone jammer, tactical outfit, little post it notes instead of speaking, military grade lock all looked good but then it all goods really bad....the editing is appalling....wtf....I don't even know what happened to the bank robber....he was there then he was gone and Grillo and his colleague are covered in Red powder from exploding bags of cash....I understand they ended up as decoys but, give us a clue and edit the thing a little more helpfully...
Then we have the whole clichéd "can't sleep, violent bank robber, must catch him myself" storyline.....need I say more?
Willis's first basement meeting with the flip chart etc.....really really made no sense whatsoever....was the director trying to make us feel like he had something to do with it...cos that's how it came across...another misdirect maybe but Bruces's acting was terrible....and what about this exotic lock....we are made to believe it is a plot point but, then....nothing!!!!!
And then...Grillo manages to locate bad guys lair and, instead of phoning the cops right there and then....goes to investigate and confirms he is bad guy....so, obviously then proceeds to follow him right to his next job...a meticulously planned (cos we saw the montage) security van heist that goes spectacularly wrong....why all the planning and measuring etc? It couldn't have gone more wrong for bad guy.....and when oh when will Americal cops be trained sufficiently to enable at least one of them to hit the target...a bad guy!!!!???
Then the whole "sneak into hospital, kill an FBI agent in a room...then have time to call Grillo's character, then kill the injured lady (who had sizeable trauma to her head from the security van heist but, looked ok to me and didn't really have sufficient trauma to spend a night in hospital anyway other than to go and get herself killed by psycho killer"....no hospital staff alerted to this strange man with a gun and silencer killing 2 people and making phone calls.....come on!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The conclusion to this entire mess has to be the worst shootout in cinema history....none of it makes sense....it actually reminded me of the old "Police Squad" Leslie Nielson shootout where they were behind 2 trash cans about 3 feet apart...and still couldn't hit anyone....and if I saw any more clichéd cops getting out of their cars and trying to walk into automatic weapon gunfire....and ultimately getting dead...I swear down.....ridiculous....oh, and to even try to make the bad guy look like Robert de Niro in Heat was outrageous...bordering on pathetic....he gives away the location of the kidnapped family to the undercover cops.....they find them but, don't think to let Grill know who has an earpiece in...wtf???? how about that little plot hole? he then has to tackle to professional hitman thinking that if he kills him he'll never know where his family are....who, by this time are now safe in an ambulance and being treated by the incredibly overacting Bruce Willis...and no-one wants that now do they!!! Bruce then goes all into action mode running while cocking a shotgun.....only for Grillo to stand off and as if to say "we need more action" have Willis off bad guy whilst he falls over a balcony to a grisly demise. Cue, soft, sweet music....bad guy is dead!!!!
Then the payoff....Grillo ends up a cop 6 months later!!!! Why??? cos he did everything a cop wouldn't do? makes no sense.
to conclude.....I rarely post on here....the last post (and in fact my first) was to congratulate "Cobra Kai" on being a class production and a breath of fresh air in the over populated arena of mini series...so, happy to heap praise where earned....but this......this made me so mad.....I love Bruce (although some of his latter years outings have been very very misjudged) and I love the up and coming Frank Grillo....Wheelman was one of my favourite films of last year...but, poor film making is inexcusable....lazy writing, shocking editing, plot holes, sub plots that lead no where (bad guys father..suffering dementia with a army background and warehouse......so so poor)....and asking the audience to suspend far too much belief.....I am personally insulted at how crap the whole effort was....alas, as I mentioned at the top...may Bruce and Frank didn't know how bad the resulting effort was going to be but, my my.....it is BAD!!!! sorry guys!-(
Tough to know where to start but, the whole hokey "we need to cut back our expenditure" conversation over breakfast sets the tone....the gruff Bruce Willis only has to say "morning" to his neighbour but, doesn't look at him and instead glares at the ground as if to say, these 2 neighbours don't get on (yet they do...they are buddies, friends) so, why have Willis glaring as if he may have something to do with what's about to unfold....misdirect maybe or just overacting? you be the judge.
The actual robbery itself.....apart from shooting the security guard (for no other reason than to tell us that this guy is evil and merciless....why would he do that....why not disarm him and tie him up?) phone jammer, tactical outfit, little post it notes instead of speaking, military grade lock all looked good but then it all goods really bad....the editing is appalling....wtf....I don't even know what happened to the bank robber....he was there then he was gone and Grillo and his colleague are covered in Red powder from exploding bags of cash....I understand they ended up as decoys but, give us a clue and edit the thing a little more helpfully...
Then we have the whole clichéd "can't sleep, violent bank robber, must catch him myself" storyline.....need I say more?
Willis's first basement meeting with the flip chart etc.....really really made no sense whatsoever....was the director trying to make us feel like he had something to do with it...cos that's how it came across...another misdirect maybe but Bruces's acting was terrible....and what about this exotic lock....we are made to believe it is a plot point but, then....nothing!!!!!
And then...Grillo manages to locate bad guys lair and, instead of phoning the cops right there and then....goes to investigate and confirms he is bad guy....so, obviously then proceeds to follow him right to his next job...a meticulously planned (cos we saw the montage) security van heist that goes spectacularly wrong....why all the planning and measuring etc? It couldn't have gone more wrong for bad guy.....and when oh when will Americal cops be trained sufficiently to enable at least one of them to hit the target...a bad guy!!!!???
Then the whole "sneak into hospital, kill an FBI agent in a room...then have time to call Grillo's character, then kill the injured lady (who had sizeable trauma to her head from the security van heist but, looked ok to me and didn't really have sufficient trauma to spend a night in hospital anyway other than to go and get herself killed by psycho killer"....no hospital staff alerted to this strange man with a gun and silencer killing 2 people and making phone calls.....come on!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The conclusion to this entire mess has to be the worst shootout in cinema history....none of it makes sense....it actually reminded me of the old "Police Squad" Leslie Nielson shootout where they were behind 2 trash cans about 3 feet apart...and still couldn't hit anyone....and if I saw any more clichéd cops getting out of their cars and trying to walk into automatic weapon gunfire....and ultimately getting dead...I swear down.....ridiculous....oh, and to even try to make the bad guy look like Robert de Niro in Heat was outrageous...bordering on pathetic....he gives away the location of the kidnapped family to the undercover cops.....they find them but, don't think to let Grill know who has an earpiece in...wtf???? how about that little plot hole? he then has to tackle to professional hitman thinking that if he kills him he'll never know where his family are....who, by this time are now safe in an ambulance and being treated by the incredibly overacting Bruce Willis...and no-one wants that now do they!!! Bruce then goes all into action mode running while cocking a shotgun.....only for Grillo to stand off and as if to say "we need more action" have Willis off bad guy whilst he falls over a balcony to a grisly demise. Cue, soft, sweet music....bad guy is dead!!!!
Then the payoff....Grillo ends up a cop 6 months later!!!! Why??? cos he did everything a cop wouldn't do? makes no sense.
to conclude.....I rarely post on here....the last post (and in fact my first) was to congratulate "Cobra Kai" on being a class production and a breath of fresh air in the over populated arena of mini series...so, happy to heap praise where earned....but this......this made me so mad.....I love Bruce (although some of his latter years outings have been very very misjudged) and I love the up and coming Frank Grillo....Wheelman was one of my favourite films of last year...but, poor film making is inexcusable....lazy writing, shocking editing, plot holes, sub plots that lead no where (bad guys father..suffering dementia with a army background and warehouse......so so poor)....and asking the audience to suspend far too much belief.....I am personally insulted at how crap the whole effort was....alas, as I mentioned at the top...may Bruce and Frank didn't know how bad the resulting effort was going to be but, my my.....it is BAD!!!! sorry guys!-(