The only thing that kept me watching was the beautiful Ella Ma, & the nice guy played by Noah Anderson. Oh, and I downloaded it and was very bored.
I am not a professional critic. I wish I were, so that I could adequately tell you how I feel about this movie.
Let's start at the beginning. It starts off with black & white retro info film about fiat currency -- how money is spent, and how many hands it passes through, and how convenient it is. This is entirely unnecessary. It gives the film a certain vibe that one does not want to feel for an action heist movie. I think we all understand that bitcoin (aka Crypto) is money.
THE PREMISE
The bad guys choke a pill dealer to steal his wares in the backpack, which is worth about $800,000 USD on the streets. Then somehow they get fenced for the FULL value, in cryptocurrency (something is not right here). Then, this mostly-untraceable crypto must then be "washed" so that nobody can trace it.
They hire a guy to clean it, who then hires another (reluctant) guy to do it. The wallet is placed onto a portable hard drive (more likely a flash drive) and then placed into a safe. The drive is stolen, and the blame falls onto the reluctant guy, who is innocent, yet is put to task to track down the stolen drive.
Meanwhile, the trading price of bitcoin keeps going up, which means the value this drive has also keeps going up.
THE CHARACTERS.
The girlfriend, played by Ella Ma. She is a pretty young girl of color with great hair, figure, and beauty. She is smart. One wonders why she is even involved with a guy 20 years her senior, and one that is a total loser to boot. We only find out until the end of the climax.
The tweeker. This character is too much. The character looks and acts like a junkie looking for his next fix, and is a dumbass. I hardly think any professional bad guy would associate himself with this guy, much less hire him for a $800K job. No offense to Jeremy Davies, but he over acted this part. Every time he was on the screen, I just cringed. He wasn't even likable, such as someone you love to hate.
The reluctant guy, played by Noah Anderson. Apparently, the guy was in jail 18 months due to a bad deal, but he did not rat out the others - yet, there is a rumor that he fingered some people and that is why he is out early. He has a kid brother who seems to be in junior high, and they live with their widower father. This guy has contacts in many places, but due to the rumor, he is getting the cold shoulder. My guy has a crypto mining operation inside of a storage locker. (This is absurd because there is no adequate cooling in there and he is using graphics cards, not ASICS, so it would be VERY loud) He is the hero of this story, and we all root for him to succeed.
The widower, played by Craig Grant (RIP). This man lost his wife and has become an alcoholic smoker, and quite possibly addicted to caffeine. This is another character I don't like. I understand him, however, as I myself am a widower. But this character is very much unlikeable and yet, confusing at times. In the same scene, he is a macho punk daddy laying down the law, and then easily flips the script and gives words of encouragement to his son. This dad gets a very quick redemption arc towards the climax of the film. He could have played a good father all along and it would not have changed the film at all.
The mechanic, bad guy, played by Tom Cavanagh. Very good acting. His goons, aka employees, give our hero a hard time in an alley, for being a snitch. Come to find out, the mechanic started the rumor, to keep our hero in his place, and ruin his rep. The mechanic also gets a redemption arc.
The storage owner, played by Frank Whaley. A retired cop that is not a bad guy, but not a good guy. He allows his friends on the force to illegally search and seize lockers. Whenever he finds tech, he hits up our hero. He allow allows our hero to set up his mining operation on site. At first it seems this character will be a problem, but he ends up saving our hero ... sort of. These two have great trust between them.
The villian, played by Bruce Bohne. This boomer has no place anywhere near technology, much less crypto. I guess that's why he hires the tweeker. This bad guy has a hard-on for killing people and then placing them in plastic bags and vacuum sealing them.
CONCLUSION
Do not see this movie unless you are bored and have already seen everything else under the sun. Maybe, in 10 to 20 years, if Noah Anderson gets really famous, you may want to see some of his earlier work, including this one.
If you are in film school, go ahead and watch the movie, and keep in mind my review, then DO BETTER.
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