IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 16, YOU SHOULD ASK YOUR PARENTS IF YOU ARE ALLOWED, IF THEY SAY NO…IT MEANS NO!

I was truly excited about this. Netflix adapting a highly-acclaimed graphic novel with a killer premise. What if the US government ended crime? When I saw the trailers, I became less and less enthralled with the whole project, especially since Oliver Megaton was helming this thing. But what I didn't expect was this film to be one of the worst things I've ever seen! The acting is awful, it's overlong, the characters are uninteresting, and the action is horribly edited. It was extremely hard to find many positive things to say about this hunk of junk. And besides a decent musical score, I cannot recommend enough that you skip this movie. Megaton's The Last Days of American Crime has a plot that could have been squeezed into 80 minutes...Instead, we got about 2 hours and 30 minutes of pure crap. Not only is this movie absolutely atrocious, but it's also derivative. Megaton borrows off of so many other, better pictures that the filmmaker forgot his own vision.

This adaptation takes place in the near future where the American government is planning to send out a signal that stops any US citizen from knowingly committing an unlawful act. The Last Days of American Crime focus on Graham (Edgar Ramirez) who gets an offer from gangster Kevin Cash (Michael Pitt) and black-market hacker Shelby Dupree (Anna Brewster) to commit the last great heist in history. The idea of it all is fairly intriguing, it is the content that really tanks this movie. They fill this thing with pointless subplots, supporting characters, and a whole lot of incompetent dialogue. The actors all seem solidly capable on the outside, but once you peel the onion a bit, all to see is some attractive people in a garbage movie.

The cast is led by Edgar Ramirez, who's had roles in The Bourne Ultimatum and Zero Dark Thirty among other terrific films. He's just so wasted in this preposterous, idiotic movie with some of the most lowlife writing you could ever witness. Ramirez himself tries his best, he truly does, but that determination clearly isn't enough. Anna Brewster just doesn't have enough experience to save this movie, and her chemistry with Michael Pitt proves that. The criminally underrated actor and filmmaker Sharlto Copley are also left in the dust as a pointless side character that doesn't really get to do much. To be very frank, the cast was really appalling, but the worst thing is: it's not their fault.

You know who is? The guy who actually made this trash. Oliver Megaton, director of some of the worst action movies ever helmed the project. Megaton is known for directing the second and third Taken movies, Columbiana and Transporter 3. All are known for their choppy editing and ugly action sequences. It is sadly the same case here. If you're going to adapt a terrific, action-packed graphic novel, actually hire a solid director. I would recommend the likes of David Leitch or even Chad Stahelski. Perhaps Mission: Impossible Fallout's Christopher McQuarrie would do. If you want a recent, batshit crazy action flick streaming on Netflix, watch the hell out of Extraction. At least Sam Hargrave knew how to direct some violence. Megaton has made some shaky-cam bull crap.

The final opinion is: Unless you are going nuts during quarantine, The Last Days of American Crime is an awful crime thriller that suffers from poor writing, B-movie type performances and a lack of thrilling action...$KIP IT

WATCH ON NETFLIX

Rated: NR

Genre: Action/Crime

Runtime: 2 hours 29 minutes

Directed By: Oliver Megaton