Worth: $13.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Chadwick Hopson, Brian Flaccus, Christina Moses, Jonathan Kehoe, Ice-T (narrator)
Intro:
...pleasantly entertaining fare...
A relationship that is still standing after a crisis of emotional, physical or even psychological stress is made stronger because of it. This is the basis for a hefty amount of romantic cinema, along with the occasional action-crime-comedy hybrid like Shawn Levy’s Date Night. The latest effort to try and make bank on this formula is TV editor turned debut director Oscar Rene Lozoya II, with a film so all over the place that it’s difficult to get a handle on, even with the genre knowledge.
A first date that rapidly spirals out into a wormhole of drugs, booze, guns and town bicycles, the script (partially co-written by lead actor Chadwick Hopson, and scene-stealing support Brian Flaccus as the uber-pretentious DJ Eddie Better) puts a lot of stock into the dichotomy of the couple on that first date and how different they are. Hopson’s Ted is a ‘pure soul’ in the most condescending way possible, a former Bible Belter who serves as the guy experiencing every extreme in the space of 24 hours. Next to him, Christina Moses’ Marie ends up feeling a bit short-changed, but credit to them both for their chemistry and smooth progression as a couple as the story goes on.
But first, we have Ice-T delivering wraparound narration about the thrill of love and how it’s “exciting as shit”. He tries a saving throw by bringing up how the story is full of criminals, violence, vice, and other things he’s made two successful careers talking about… but to call this jarring is an understatement.
And in that lies the issue with the film’s tone. It has a decent-enough handle on its more gritty aspects, aided greatly by Jonathan Kehoe’s performance as a dirty cop that serves as the first ‘shit just got real’ moment, and the comedy gets some well-earned chuckles in seeing Ted come out of his shell and crack some alright one-liners. But when the two come together, it can make the whole affair feel at odds with itself. This isn’t helped by how the plot progression spirals out in a more detrimental way as it gets to the third act, where it starts piling on last-minute details that make the thing feel a lot more over-stuffed and messy than it needed to be.
Which is genuinely a shame because, when the film is in its stride, it makes for pleasantly entertaining fare, greatly elevated by how well Ted and Marie play off each other. It’s just a shame that stride isn’t more consistent.
