Novice writer & director Wes Miller should have passed on the screenplay duties to someone more experienced. The premise of the story was good, but it was executed poorly.
What was the point of even having John Cusack in the film? And why does he always have to wear the lame sad black clothes and baseball cap in every film?
The character development was pretty lame, especially Taye Diggs' Asian wife that totally did not make them look like a couple and was annoying with the subtitles when she was speaking in Chinese. Their son wasn't even 1/10th Chinese, so gain, what was the point? The casting department really needed to give their head a shake. The only cop that looked and played the role was Luke Hemsworth. All other cops including supporting roles and (especially) Cusask where very poorly cast.
Wes Miller's camera directing was decent, but directing his cast was awful, and it showed. The only actors that held their own were George Lopez and Luke Hemsworth. I'm a fan of Taye Diggs, but I know with a better director, he would've shined.
The editing was also atrocious. Did a 5th grader with scissors and tape edit this film?
The cinematography was decent as was the score and soundtrack (would have loved to hear more). The pace wasn't bad as some reviewers stated - it was the directing and editing that made it seem so slow. The length of 94 mins was decent, although 85 would have been better with proper editing.
Nevertheless, this is a B-grade film with (unfortunately) a C-grade production, which made it lose its potential. Perhaps instead of having over *36* producers in this film, they should have invested in a better film production team.
Would I see it again? No. Would I recommend it? Sure if there's nothing better to see, and if you can get past the amateur production and simply appreciate the story being told from some popular lead actors.
Not even close to the fake 10/10's, but certainly undeserving of all the 1/10's. It's a true and honest 6/10 from me.
