From director Justin Daly, the grandson of the legendary Ingrid Bergman, comes a thriller that takes us to Hollywood. The Big Take (2018) is filled with blackmail, kidnapping and mystery.
The story follows Douglas Brown (James McCaffrey, American Splender), an actor who is getting blackmailed by Vic Venitos (Slate Holmgren) for money to help Venitos's screenwriting friend Max O’Leary (Ebon Moss Bachrach, Girls). O'Leary unwittingly ends up stuck in the middle with private investigator Frank Manascalpo (Dan Hedeya, The Usual Suspects), who in turn ends up turning to his own fixer Edie (Zoe Bell, Deathproof) to clean up the situation.
Hollywood is a place where we have seen many crime thrillers take place, LA Confidential, Hail! Caesar and Mulholland Falls to mention just a few. Here we get to use the characters made famous by the aforementioned movies - the actor, producer, writer, private investigator and fixer - as each blends into the story for what we need to see to enjoy this film. If you are a fan of the ideas of Hollywood being used as a backdrop for a thriller, this one will appeal to you.
The film does however have a big flaw, and this comes from the music. Instead of giving us slow, smooth thriller music, we find ourselves being blasted with rock music that is way to heavy to fit the scenes the music is playing through.
For a film that could easily be the building blocks for a future star behind the camera, the film shows all the potential he has, and you can detect the Tarantino vision used to create his own trademark on the film itself.
This is a movie that doesn’t live up to the potential it has, though we do get to see good performances from the whole cast. It could have been slicker but only ends up feeling generic.
Written by Darren / Movie Reviews 101
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