Criminal Activities (2015)

Four young men make a risky investment together that puts them in trouble with the mob.

Director:

Jackie Earle Haley

Writer:

Robert Lowell

Stars:

Michael Pitt, Dan Stevens, Christopher Abbott

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Pitt	...	Zach
Dan Stevens	...	Noah
Christopher Abbott	...	Warren
Rob Brown	...	Bryce
Edi Gathegi	...	Marques
Jackie Earle Haley	...	Gerry
John Travolta	...	Eddie
Morgan Wolk	...	Janie
Travis Aaron Wade	...	Agent Santos
Alan B. Jones	...	Agent Reichert
Chris Haley	...	Matthew
Christopher Jay Gresham	...	Little Mike
Bobby C. King	...	Agent Colin (as Bobby King)
Tyrone Jenkins	...	Demetrius
Rex Baker	...	Featured - Orpheus

Storyline

Pic is about four young guys who reunite at an ex-classmate's funeral. One mentions to the others inside information on a stock that is a guaranteed lock to make them instant millionaires. Unfortunately, the deal goes south along with their investment. Things go from bad to worse: one of them borrowed his share of the money from a mobster.

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Plot Keywords:

cleveland ohio | set up | revenge | bully | army buddy | 

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Taglines:

High stakes. No breaks.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Reunites Rob Brown and Michael Pitt after appearing in Finding Forrester (2000), fifteen years earlier.

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Goofs

Eddie insists that all four guys shoot Marques with same gun. That would not implicate that they all murdered him. It wasn't four different guns being shot at the same time, it wasn't filmed or recorded, the first guy killed him and the rest shot a dead man.

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Connections

Referenced in Half in the Bag: The Fanatic (2019)

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Soundtracks

Lifetime
Written by Alex Cowan, James Christian Day, and Laurence Thomas Allen
Performed by Elmo
Courtesy of Five Missions More, Ltd.
By arrangement with Steel Synch

User Reviews

Mainly average but the sudden twists will make you smile

No spoilers!

This is a fairly basic Hollywood story of how things take a turn south really fast in peoples lives and keep getting worse by the minute. I've always liked "gangster" movies like this, kinda simple but yet funny characters and unexpected twists you really cannot predict. It's the small things that can make an average movie turn in to a good one and this did that for me. About half of it is just plain average but then things start to happen so don't stop watching.

The writing and characters have clear influences from Tarantinos Pulp Fiction, Guy Ritchie's Snatch(and others) and the ending is quite "Usual Suspect's" type but so what if we've seen it before, it still works. For it's budget I'm happy with what I saw.

Too much of movies these days throw money away in effects and other useless crap, they still haven't learned that a billion dollars worth of effects won't make a bad script good. Save that money Hollywood and make a hundred of these types instead. Put the money towards good writers and casting and that will save you a lot.. and make a better movies at the same time.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 November 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

Criminal Activities

Filming Locations:

Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$7,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$171,494

Company Credits

Production Co:

Capacity Pictures, Mayday Movie Productions, NeeNee Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1