Life of Crime: Movie Review
The new film, “Life of Crime” is based on the novel “The Switch” by Elmore Leonard. It is also a prequel to Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown”. Stepping in as the younger versions of Samuel L. Jackson, Bridget Fonda, and Robert De Niro are Yasiin Bey as Ordell, Isla Fisher as Melanie, and John Hawkes as Louis. Instead of Tarantino, we get Daniel Schechter, who has directed two other films I never heard of. After watching “Life of Crime” which features a great cast, that includes Jennifer Aniston, Tim Robbins, and Will Forte, I have to say, I have no desire to check out the filmmakers previous works. This is another needless prequel that I can’t imagine anyone was asking for.
Taking place years before the events in “Jackie Brown”, Ordell and Louis decide to kidnap Mickey (Aniston), the wife of real-estate developer Frank Dawson (Robins) and hold her for ransom with their partner Richard (Mark Boone Junior), a Nazi gun dealer who doesn’t mind working with African and Jewish criminals. What they don’t realize is that Frank actually plans to leave his wife for Melanie (Fisher) and is actually not too keen on paying the ransom for a wife that he no longer wants. Meanwhile, Louis actually begins to like Mickey and that makes the kidnapping even more complicated. Ordell wants to cut off Mickey’s finger to send to Frank, but Louis is not having it.
One major issue with “Life of Crime” is that is never surprises. There is nothing that happens that you don’t see coming from a mile away and that wouldn’t be such a problem if at least the characters were fun to watch, but they aren’t. It actually feels like a bad made-for-television movie.
I loved “Jackie Brown” and aside from the names of the main characters, there is nothing here even resembling Tarantino’s classic. I love the cast, but they are just wasted in this crime caper that just drags on. I was absolutely bored and I usually love films like ‘Life of Crime”. Maybe under different direction and a better screenplay, it could have worked, but it just doesn’t. It’s a crime that “Life of Crime” was even made.
By: Marc Ferman