Friday, September 10, 2021

The Debt Collector

The Debt Collector (2018)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by. Jesse V. Johnson

Starring: Scott Adkins, Louis Mandylor, Vladimir Kulich, Tony Todd, Rachel Brann

From: Several different U.S. & UK companies

A fun movie, even if you know the ending beforehand.

As sometimes happens, a motion picture was viewed thanks to discussion on a messageboard. There, someone mentioned this Jesse V. Johnson joint starring frequent collaborator Scott Adkins. They happened to reveal the ending for reasons I won't get into as that would be a spoiler also. It's no big deal (it wasn't revealing the most shocking moment of The Force Awakens, after all) and it's on me for not watching this sometime sooner in the preceding three years. After seeing it, this has the F-bomb dropped too often and pretentious black and white shots featuring cows (it's a metaphor, you see...); otherwise, it was a pretty good time.

Adkins plays a karate dojo owner who is in debt, perhaps because he's too “traditional” with his school. Thanks to a buddy, he meets up with (ironically) a shady debt collection agency-although I presume all of those are shady-and joins up with them for some quick cash. He teams up with Louis Mandylor, a guy nicknamed Sue who is first seen passed out in the front seats of his SWEET '71 Cadillac Coupe DeVille. Of course, they are a wacky duo who at first don't get along but eventually they have a camaraderie w/ each other. After the expected “black and white” cases things become more much complicated...

It's a silly movie where some aspects can be criticized—besides those brief pretentious moments, there's the oddball structure and how the ending is on the abrupt side. A big help is not just the chemistry between the two leads-quality action scenes where multiple dudes get wrecked is the biggest asset in this film that also has a smattering of laughs. I saw this on Netflix, which also carries its sequel Debt Collectors; however, I only have the service until the middle of next week; who knows when I'll subscribe again. In the meantime, expect me to see only a horror movie or two on the service.

 

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