Tracers (2015)

Wanted by the Chinese mafia, a New York City bike messenger escapes into the world of parkour after meeting a beautiful stranger.

Director:

Daniel Benmayor

Writers:

Matt Johnson (screenplay), T.J. Scott (story)

Stars:

Taylor Lautner, Marie Avgeropoulos, Adam Rayner

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Taylor Lautner	...	Cam
Marie Avgeropoulos	...	Nikki
Adam Rayner	...	Miller
Rafi Gavron	...	Dylan
Luciano Acuna Jr.	...	Tate
Josh Yadon	...	Jax
Johnny M. Wu	...	Jerry (as Johnny Wu)
Sam Medina	...	Hu
Amirah Vann	...	Angie
Christian Steel	...	Joey (as Christian Steele)
Wai Ching Ho	...	Chen
Chris Jackson	...	Lonnie
Sean Rahill	...	Messenger #1
Andrew Elvis Miller	...	Messenger #2
Doua Moua	...	Skinny Jeans

Storyline

Wanted by the Chinese mafia, a young New York City bike messenger down on his luck, who just wants to do good, escapes into the world of parkour after meeting a beautiful stranger and her group of Parkour trainers that get him involved in a criminal delivery service for extra money.

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Plot Keywords:

running across a roof | bicycling | young man | traffic | parkour | 

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Taglines:

It's not a crime if they can't catch you.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 on appeal for some intense violence, perilous action, sexual content and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Chinese Vietnamese

Release Date:

20 March 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

Cu mafia pe urme

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$11,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Saban Films, Cowtown Cinema Ventures, Temple Hill Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jacob Sullivan wrote an earlier draft of the script.

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Goofs

At the start of the final job, the crew gets out of the van at W 35th Street; however, the police scanner that Nikki hears in the van says "shots fired at 231 West 23rd."

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Quotes

Miller: I'm inviting you to sit down at the dinner table. Show me you know how to be a good guest.

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Connections

References Full Metal Jacket (1987)

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Soundtracks

Sharpshooter
Written by Misun Wojcik & Andrew Wallace
Performed by Misun
Courtesy of Bleed 101

User Reviews

Laughably illogical

Quickie Review:

Burdened by the debt he owes the Chinese mafia, Cam (Taylor Lautner) must find a quick way to earn money. In his desperation he joins a group of street runners who use their skills to commit high-paying crimes. Cam soon finds himself in criminal world with higher stakes than he expected. Other than the parkour scenes there is no other redeemable quality to Tracers. In fact there is a severe lack of quality in acting and story logic. This should have been a simple crime-heist movie with some parkour action in it. Instead there are numerous instances of forced drama that you will not care about at all. This movie is simply a waste of time.

Full Review:

Let's be blunt here, other than the Twilight fans nobody is looking forward to a Taylor Lautner movie. Then again I used feel the same way about Kirsten Stewart and Robert Pattinson, but lately they have been making good decisions in choosing their roles. So I thought I'd give Lautner the benefit of the doubt. I was wrong.

I'll give Tracers this, the parkour scenes were well done. There were plenty of these chase scenes and they did bring some excitement in an otherwise dull movie. It's not to the skill level of parkour master David Belle in the French film District B13, but the chase scenes were certainly the best parts of movie. That's where the kudos end for me.

I think everyone would agree that movies should try to make us empathize with the main characters. However, the writers try to achieve this by going overboard and giving everyone a troubled past. I mean we have characters who are in deep debt with the Chinese mafia, have been abandoned by their father, had a mother who died after being evicted, living on scraps on the streets, attempted sexual assault victim. With all these problems and horrible past I'm shocked they are even functioning human beings! Every other scene is some character deeply brooding about how their hoping for a better life. Then there is a love story that doesn't make sense beyond "hey you're kinda hot, I'm kinda hot. Let's get it on." Oh and of course that comes with an obligatory love triangle that you see coming from miles away. There is no chemistry because the dialog and the performances are cringe worthy. Honestly, why these people are even interacting together makes no sense. As if the movie wasn't bloated enough with unnecessary backstories, there are random twists and turns in the story that are very illogical because there was no previous setup.

I am sure some will say I'm overthinking this. No, I'd argue it's the writers who overthought this movie. There was a good hook here: using parkour skills to pull off heists. All that was needed was a simple story to give reason for these chase scenes, but they try to add drama with poorly written characters and the laughable performances didn't help either. Definitely not worth parkour running out to see it.

Check out more on my movie review blog The Stub Collector: http://thestubcollector.wordpress.com/