Mercury Plains (2016)

Number Rolled: 100

Movie Name/Year: Mercury Plains (2016)

Tagline: No home. No laws. No limit.

Genre: Action, Thriller, Drama

Length: 102 minutes

Rating: R

Production Companies: Number 5 Films, Republic of EPIC

Producer: Tibaut Bowman, Marianna Gose, Houston Hill, Frank Robertson, Susan Temple, Robert Thomas, Eric Watson

Director: Charles Burmeister

Writer: Charles Burmeister

Actors: Scott Eastwood, Nick Chinlund, Andy Garcia, Jorge A Jimenez, Justin Arnold, Justin Park, Angela Sarafyan, Keith Poulson, Nicholas Pullara, Miguel Velez, Steven Pritchard

Stunts: Mark Chavarria, Joe Gonzalez, Jason Owen

Blurb from Netflix: Running from his troubles in Texas, an aimless drifter takes up arms with a paramilitary group that says it’s targeting Mexico’s drug cartels.

Selina’s Point of View:

Netflix needs a better blurb writer. By just the blurb – which I’m sure they thought was cleverly worded – I knew exactly what this film would be. Not just plot-wise, but spoiler-wise.

That’s not cool.

I have a feeling that the emotions that come along with slowly figuring things out was supposed to be a huge part of this film. Which means whoever wrote that blurb screwed up the experience of this movie for people watching it on the Netflix platform.

That said, I had several issues with this film itself.

The biggest of all was that the script was terrible. The plot alone might not have been an issue and Scott Eastwood (The Fate of the Furious, Suicide Squad, Fury) did well with his character, but the script was just bad. It could have been a decent film with a better writer and some better actors to work alongside Eastwood.

To be fair, though, if the greatest actors of all time had to say what some of those in the film had to say, they likely wouldn’t have been able to sell it either.

This was supposed to be a thrilling and gritty film that caused feelings of dread and unease… I don’t know how the creators thought it could be that and pretentious at the same time. It didn’t work. It just wound up making me sigh most of the time.

I likely won’t watch this film again in the future.

Cat’s Point of View:

If this film crossed my radar at all, it didn’t stick with me. Having now watched the movie, I’m afraid I don’t think that will change. I’m likely going to forget this one in time.

I have a good deal of respect for Scott Eastwood (The Forger, The Perfect Wave, Snowden) as an actor. He’s more than his looks and his well-known last name. His first handful of film projects, he didn’t even use the Eastwood name; and he auditioned for his first role like anyone else – even though his father was the director. Nepotism didn’t land him that part.

He seems to have been slightly type-cast so far, however, and part of me wonders if he’s seeking those roles specifically or if they’re finding him. Either way, the apple is certainly not falling very far from the tree.

I don’t really have any faults with his performance, per se, but overall the production was just lacking something. It went so slowly at times. It elevated the sense of dread and impatience that I felt – but it also drew out everything else so that it became uncomfortable. Not physically, of course, but I got to a point in the film that I just felt squirmy in general.

I really enjoyed moments here and there, though, so it wasn’t really bad. It felt like there were even shades of Full Metal Jacket (1987), which I also found interesting.

Nick Chinlund (The Onion Movie, The Chameleon, Need for Speed) was a good fit for The Captain. I did spend a bit of the movie trying to figure out where I remembered him from, though. Of course, he had a bit more hair for The Chronicles of Riddick (2004). There’s a deep voice in my head now that’s saying "You should have taken the money, Toombs." But I digress.

All in all, the movie was okay. It wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t great. If asked if I would recommend it, my response would probably be ‘eh, sure.’ I’m just not entirely sure I’d watch it again.

Languages

Speech Available: English

Subtitles Available: English

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 13%

Metascore - None

Metacritic User Score – None

IMDB Score – 4.3/10

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 1.5/5

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3/5

Movie Trailer: