Review of Shot Caller (2017) by Jon D — 19 Sep 2018

I don't really understand this film.

Jacob (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) joins a gang of Nazis in prison. This is a very purposeful, intentional choice. It could have been a gang of anything, but Ric Roman Waugh chose to have it be Nazis.

Despite this, it literally could have been any gang. The Nazi gang has no motivation or code or anything. In fact, there is a scene in which they band together with the Mexican gang. Isn't that... kind of like... against how most Nazis feel and operate?

There are also several scenes and plot points in Shot Caller that don't make any sense whatsoever. There is a scene where Jacob is taken out to fight some other prisoner for some reason, and Redwood (Chris Browning) has apparently orchestrated this? And then Redwood kills a prison guard or something? I literally had no idea what was happening.

I also didn't understand the point of Kutcher's (Omari Hardwick) character at all. His lone distinguishing characteristic is that he is afraid of shooting people now, after saving the girl from the pedophile.

Also, the mustaches. It really bothered me that Benjamin Bratt's mustache looked extremely fake. Nikolaj's looked pretty fake, also, but could have potentially been real.

I also didn't understand Jacob's intentions during this entire film. His actions and motivations never really made sense and, at some times, were simply bizarre and confusing.

If he didn't want The Beast to have his family killed, couldn't he have just went through with the gun deal without alerting the police?

I don't know. Not a horrible film, but nothing to get excited about.