20131116: Action Review--Assault on Wall Street

Assault on Wall Street

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Canadian live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 99 minutes, action, drama, thriller.
2. IMDB: 6.0/10.0 from 8,535 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 25% on the meter; 44% liked it from 1,072 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.8/5.0 from 202,346 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Uwe Boll.
6. Starring: Dominic Purcell as Jim Baxford, Erin Karpluk as Rosie Baxford, Edward Furlong as Sean, John Heard as Jeremy Stancroft, Keith David as Freddy, Michael Pare as Frank, Lochlyn Munro as Robert Canworth, Eric Roberts as Lawyer Patterson.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Jim and Rosie are in a good place financially in 2008, except that Rosie has been quite ill.  The medical prognosis is good, but a lot of money will be needed to continue her treatments to a successful conclusion, like 50 to 70 thousand USD the first year.  Fortunately, Jim has had a lot of well paying work available.  Unfortunately, the economy is about to face a huge crisis of confidence, with bad impact on Jim's investments and on the possibility of Rosie's recovery.


2. Jim's retirement funds start falling total paper value.  Ouch; Jim and Rosie need to cash this in.  His broker Robert won't talk to him at first.  Jim and Sean's police friends, Freddy and Frank, are having similar problems with their retirement funds.  Robert tries to cushion the shock from some of Jim's investments being de-listed; others were toxic real estate investments.  The legal investigations have already started.  The only way to get any money back is through class action lawsuits, which could take years.  Just to add to everything else, the bank calls; their mortgage is in trouble.  When the four friends meet the next day, Jim tells them that he now owes 60 thousand on the toxic mortgage 'investment.'  Freddy's down 18 thousand which will knock out college plans, and so on.


3. This all keeps getting worse; the vengeance part of the movie is underpinned with these everyday, yet undeniably horrible stories.  Jim cannot re-finance since he cannot prove that he does not need it.  (Net worth down strongly, Rosie's been out of work for a year.) The squeeze continues.  The group that thinks he owes them 60 thousand asks for the 60 thousand now, and they will cut off the demand for interest payments.  The banks looks at all of Jim's situation and decides to foreclose.  At work, his boss tells him that an employee in financial trouble cannot be trusted to protect money.


4. So, the house, the job, the investments all are gone.  Bills are up.  Jim's in real trouble.  Rosie cannot take the stress.  Jim has to deal with her passing and her funeral.  A little over half way into the film, Jim has nothing to lose, and plenty to be angry about.


5. Jim gets served his eviction papers, so he did not get legal protection ahead of time.  He's already started his campaign of revenge, but this steps things up.  He's got 48 hours until the sheriff comes to oust him.


6. He moves into a small hotel.  He makes maps.  He gets guns and ammo.  He makes surveillance runs.  He practices shooting.  He starts taking out people who were directly responsible (at least in his mind) for Rosie's death and his financial ruin.


7. He meets his friends again for lunch.  That's a bit difficult.


8. He prepares for another target: Robert, the man who sold him all the bad investments and toxic securities backed by bad real estate loans.  After accomplishing that, Jim takes out quite a few more mid-level workers in the financial district who worked in the same building.


9. Will Jim get out alive?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: If you are still angry at Wall Street, watch this film.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 A bit too much hand-held badness and soft focus.


2. Sound: 10/10 No problems.


3. Acting: 8/10 Kudos to Michael Pare, Keith David, John Heard, Eric Roberts, Edward Furlong, Erin Karpluk, and even Lochlyn Munro.  The only performance I did not care for was Dominic Purcell's, but he has done worse.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 This is a tough story, but it's logically put together, except perhaps for the ending.