The 2nd (2020)

Streaming Service: Netflix
Movie Name/Year: The 2nd (2020)
Genre: Action, Drama
Length: 1h 33min
Rating: Unrated
Production/Distribution: Daniel Grodnik Productions, Front Row Filmed Entertainment, Fury Film Franchise, GEM Entertainment, Leonine Distribution, Lucid Film, Momentum Pictures, Première TV Distribution, Source 1 Media, The Movie Partnership, Turbo Panda Productions, Voltage Pictures, Wonderfilm Media, WOWOW Cinema
Director: Brian Skiba
Writer: Eric Bromberg, James Bromberg, Paul Taegel
Actors: Ryan Phillippe, Casper Van Dien, Jack Griffo, Lexi Simonsen
 
Blurb from IMDb: An Army Delta Force officer is late picking up his son at college. His son and a Supreme Court Justice's daughter are the last there. A gang of terrorists are there to abduct her and force her dad's hand on a Second Amendment vote.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
The 2nd definitely had an agenda. There was nothing subtle about it. In fact, it bordered on propaganda at times.
 
This isn’t the first time we’ve mistakenly scheduled a flick that wound up having a propaganda feel to it. Usually, we just opt to skip the day and not platform it at all. By the end of The 2nd, though, I decided it was just preachy and distasteful instead of full-on propaganda. So, here we go.
 
One of my big actor-related hot takes, is that I really like Casper Van Dien (Mad Heidi, Daughter, A Tale of Two Guns). I think he is capable of much better roles than he gets. I fell for him in Starship Troopers (1997) and my opinion has never changed. The problem is, where I like him, I very rarely like the movies he’s in. The 2nd was not an exception. I just don’t understand why he can’t seem to land parts in flicks that are actually good.
 

Aside from Van Dien, The 2nd had absolutely nothing going for it. The acting was obnoxious, you could hear the microphone rubbing against something sometimes, and I cannot believe anyone approved the script. Nothing about the dialogue was natural.
 
I think they might have had a ten-year-old watch Die Hard (1988) a few times and then had him write something as close to it as he could remember. Then they took out all the good parts and released it.
 
I would not sit through The 2nd again for any reason. It was absolutely awful.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 0%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 11%
Metascore – None
Metacritic User Score – 4.0
IMDB Score –3.8/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 1/5
 
Trust-the-Dice’s Parental Advisory Rating: R
 
Movie Trailer: