Review of Son of a Gun (2014) by Foxgrove — 02 Feb 2015

Director Julius Avery manages to make heavy handed entertainment out of the prison drama and the heist movie, two of the easiest genres to at least make watchable. Here they become tiresome and ridiculous lacking any subtlety whatsoever. The event packed screenplay is peppered with more clichés in one movie than I can remember in many a year. The story gives the impression of a lot going on, but take out the many obligatory romantic interludes and there is definitely less here than meets the eye. Both the heist and the escape from prison are so easily accomplished that one could believe it would have been harder if the guards had personally let them in and out, respectively. Even the editing doesn’t help as not one palpable jot of tension or excitement is produced despite everything that is going on, and given the material’s potential.

Of the actors an unusually cast Ewan McGregor acquits himself well as a hardened criminal, but a lot of the other cast don’t come off quite as well. The ubiquitous Alicia Vikander stuck with the ‘girlfriend’ part, needs to start choosing her roles with a bit more care. Following on from ‘Ex- Machina’, another dud, she would be wise to reflect on her best performances in films like ‘A Royal Affair’ and ‘Testament of Youth’. Newcomer Brenton Thwaites may look pretty but he spends almost the entire movie shirtless sporting an expression of perplexed naiveté. He looks as if he has never been to school let alone jail!

This is the sort of film that in another decade would have gone out as a B movie or second feature. These days it’s just not good enough to pass it off as the main event.