Repugnant cruelty

I didn’t intend to watch this movie, but when my initial choice was jam packed, I saw the movie poster: The Bag Man, starring John Cusack and Robert DeNiro. Great actors, and a thriller, what could go wrong?

The Bag Man is a classic example of how to waste a stellar cast. It literally has nothing to offer, other than repugnant cruelty. For a thriller, it lacks on the thrills. It tries its best to create suspense, but judging by the number of big groups walking out of the theatre halfway through, I’m pretty sure the audience won’t care.

Director David Grovic has clearly seen his fair share of Quentin Tarantino films and he’s definitely paying homage, 20 years too late, to his 1994 hit Pulp Fiction. However, if you’re going to rip something off, do it right and do it better!

The story is interesting, but I was confused throughout, and standing at almost two hours, it was tedious to stay on track without getting distracted. I just couldn’t wait for it to be over. By the time it got to the final reveal, I just wanted to go home!

The story starts off with a bit of excitement. A crime kingpin, Dragna (Robert DeNiro), is on a private jet where he has clearly asked mob henchman Jack (John Cusack) to come along for a ride so they can talk business.

He orders Jack to go on a mission to bring a mysterious black satchel to room 13 in a motel in the middle of nowhere. It must be room 13, he insists! Once he gets there, he must wait for Dragna to arrive. He just has one condition; he must not look inside the bag!

Immediately, whilst Jack’s on the job, he gets shot in the hand trying to get the bag. The audience don’t see any of this, but are in on all the details when Jack stops on the side of the road to use a pay phone to call Dragna. Unlucky for the guy who shot him, he’s now in the trunk of Jack’s beat up car covered in blood and bullet holes.

Jack realises that this simple mission is now instigating a lot of mayhem. Once he arrives at the motel, the chaos doesn’t end either. He awaits further instructions from his boss. However, whilst there, the bodies start to pile up, including a Serbian-Roma dwarf (Martin Klebba), an angry man with an eye patch (Kirk Jones) and a desk clerk who uses a wheelchair but doesn’t need it, played by Crispin Glover. This film has unexplained random characters throughout, including police officers, who by the end, turn out to be just as annoying as the bad guys.

But, in the midst off all this chaos, Jack finds a potential ally in the film’s femme fatale, Rivka (Rebecca Da Costa). Rivka may not be who Jack thinks she is. You will leave the theatre with many unanswered questions, as well as a feeling of regret for wasting almost two hours. Oh I forgot to mention, unlike Pulp Fiction, you get to finally see the contents of the bag … I still don’t care!

I may seem a little harsh but I was expecting so much more out of this movie and was completely disappointed. I’m actually starting to feel a little sorry for Cusack. He delivers a solid performance, but is terrible at picking the right movies for his talent. If you’ve him in Identity or 1408 (both major box office flops) then you’ve seen him in The Bag Man.

DeNiro is in literally 15 of the 108 minutes. He picks up his pay cheque, but loses his reputation with it. There’s not much to say about his acting. He does the best with what he’s given. There’s one scene, where Grovic uses violence against women to bring in the shock appeal. In this scene, I came to realise that DeNiro is just not a good actor anymore. Or he’s just too old to care! Either way, he needs to try harder.

If you enjoy TV movies and you’re a Cusack or DeNiro fan, wait until this comes out on DVD. For all the others of you, this is definitely a pass! It’s not a terrible movie, but it’s just not good either!

* Showing in Cineco, Seef I, Seef II, Saar Cineplex