Dragged Across Concrete

Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) and Anthony Lurasetti (Vince Vaughn) are two cops in the city of Bulwark who've been suspended due to their excessive policing methods. Ex-con Henry Johns (Tory Kittles) has just hit the streets and is looking for a way to make life better for his mother and little brother. In an attempt to make money, all three of them come into contact with a violent criminal called Vogelman and their fates between intertwined.

This had the ingredients for an enjoyably pulpy 90 minute long b-movie that might have acquired cult status as time passed but for some reason writer/director S. Craig Zahler spins proceedings out to a head numbing 160 minutes thus ensuring all good will vanishes out the window by the time it finishes. There's just not enough story here to justify a running time that long so we're treated to stake out scenes as boring as the real thing, real time eating, the troubled family life of a character who only exists to give the director's wife some work and numerous darkly lit (seriously, large portions of the film are genuinely hard to see) scenes of people talking really....re...all...y sl....owwww.....ly. It's maddening. It's, and yes I know this is a cardinal sin in a cinema, it's the kind of film that will make you want to look at your phone.

This combined with the casting of Mel Gibson will really piss a lot of people off. He suits the part of Ridgeman and his character's grumpiness earns a couple of chuckles but its quite hard to separate the film persona from the real one especially when racism rears it's head which makes for some uncomfortable viewing, especially in a troubling moment between him and his wife (Laurie Holden) as they discuss the state of their neighbourhood. It's a weird scene, one that MAGA viewers will jump on while the rest of us squirm. Vaughn as Lurasetti is pretty forgettable and sadly brings none of the presence he showed in Zahler's last movie, the blistering Brawl In Cell Block 99. Thankfully Tory Kittles as Johns brings a dash of much needed humour and heart to proceedings and the scenes he gets to share with Michael Jai White as his old buddy Biscuit are where the movie shines. He's the film's conscience. Without him it would just be too dark because one thing Zahler does well is darkness.

While there's nothing here as vicious as the gutting in Zahler's earlier movie Bone Tomahawk or the face drag from Brawl In Cellblock 99 there's a constant sense of menace and brutality that just worms it's way into you. The most violent scene in the film isn't even bloody actually, it's just two men making a suspect's girlfriend very uncomfortable. It's almost harrowing and Zahler drags it out as far as he can. He's not a director who'll help you relax and in places the film feels like an endurance test. Late in the film Jennifer Carpenter plays a woman, Kelly, who's introduced and you get the feeling the dynamic of the film is about to be changed but then something happens and you can almost sense the director snickering behind the camera. He's just played a joke on us and it ain't a nice one. It feels like the henchman backstory joke from the first Austin Powers film but all it does here is increase an already intolerable running time. Had she been introduced earlier and had her story running parallel to the others it might have added a bit of depth but she turns up too late in the day to matter. 

It's just another annoyance because as mentioned earlier there's the meat of a good 90's throwback thriller here. 3 men in a situation they don't want to be in, looking for a way out and some cash along the way. That outline and the film's unpredictable last 30 minutes could have made for something good but the excess of padding just knocks the wind out of it all. I've no idea who this film is aimed at. It's not a movie I can imagine anyone in their right mind enjoying. Zahler's refusal to kowtow to audience and story expectations is admirable I suppose but jesus it does not make for fun viewing.

In cinemas now.