Criminal Activities: DVD Review
Arriving on Blu-ray and DVD this week is the directorial debut from actor Jackie Earle Haley, “Criminal Activities”. The film lacks originality, but the solid cast that includes John Travolta, Michael Pitt, Dan Stevens, Edi Gathegi, Jackie Earle Haley and the interesting final act, help make it quite entertaining.
After the death of their friend, Zach (Pitt), Warren (Christopher Abbott), Bryce (Rob Brown) decided to gather together for drinks after the funeral. Noah (Stevens), a former schoolmate that none of them can stand, decides to join in for drinks. When Bryce tells his friends that he overheard some information that could make the four men a whole lot of money in the stock market, they jump at the chance. Unfortunately the tip was too-good-to-be-true and the four friends lost everything. Too make matters worse, the money they used to invest came from a ruthless crime boss (Travolta) and now they are in some serious trouble.
Unable to come up with the 400 thousand dollars owed, the crime boss, known as Eddie gives them a way out. They must kidnap Marques (Gathegi) and keep him on ice until Eddie and his right hand man Gerry (Haley) are ready to collect him. As you can imagine, things don’t go as planned and the four friends wind up in over their heads.
“Criminal Activities” is definitely not worthy of a theatrical release, despite the impressive cast. However it is far better than most of the direct-to-video stuff out there. If you are a fan of crime-thrillers and like the stars, this would definitely be worth a rental.
By: Marc Ferman