The Drop (2006)

Simply Perfect

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This film is so bad, so poorly made, that it's really hard to know where to start. I don't often write critiques on films because I realize that every filmmaker has a different vision and things don't always work out as expected. Besides, often with movies, it's the old problem of too many chefs in the kitchen at one time. But not even the beautiful and talented Sean Young or not-so- beautiful, especially here, John Savage, can help. From the moment the movie started I had a sudden bad feeling that was right on the mark. It started without any sense of purpose and then moved to a job interviewer who spent endless moments smoking a cigarette in a dark room while he interviewed a job applicant. This dragged on for an impossibly long time, often repeating itself and inserting confusing flashes of possibilities the job seeker was apparently imagining as the employer talked. Offered $5,000, half now and half on delivery, to drive a vehicle from San Francisco to Los Angeles (why any of this we'll never know), the kid, smart as he appears to be, jumps at the chance and away he goes. Again, due to the blotchy amateurish editing that drags on throughout the film, the kid drives and drives and drives and eventually at the end of our tether, he arrives at a huge nearly empty parking garage in Los Angeles. The old amateurish filler of frightening dreams helps kill time while the driver and the poor audience patiently waits. Finally, after getting plenty of rest, the kid peeks into the glove compartment where he finds an envelope containing a key. His immediate instinct is to go open the trunk where a briefcase awaits so he naturally has to open the case. From the brilliant light that emanates from the case, we think maybe it's like that old Ralph Meeker(Mike Hammer) flick with radioactive stuff, but we'll never really know for sure what it was. Again for obscure reasons we'll never know, the kid hides the briefcase and when eventually a couple of rough fellows turn up to collect what is referred to as "the package" (not even a remote relative of The Transporter Franchise), and seeing no package, they become belligerent. Savage then turns up and spends half an hour talking to himself and looking tired and worn while the henchmen chase the kid around up and down and through the parking garage. More than once he is right at the open entrance but he'd rather go back and run around the garage some more. Several times the men corner him and demand to know where he has hidden the briefcase, but he won't talk. So they continue to chase him around endlessly shooting wildly at him, forgetting obviously, that if he's dead he can't tell them where he hid the briefcase. One might think an all out war in the dead of night might result in a call to the police, but no. Never happens. Probably no money left to hire police. I don't want to give away what is supposed, I think, to be a surprise twist, but I can only say that I don't expect a lot of CGI or extravagant sets, etc. on a Top Ramen budget, but such a misguided unintelligent script, utterly impossible lack of direction and editing that a five-year old could have done better. Like, what's with the occasional flashes of little things that went before and have no connection to what is going on now? I'll tell you what. In writing its called padding. All the flashbacks are just padding as is the tiresome drive from SF to LA. Even the initial interview is so drawn out with the interviewer smoking a full pack of cigarettes that's it's already very discouraging. Lots of padding, very little story and/or money and the end result: This is not a movie and should never have been made. How could Ms Young and Mr. Savage be so desperate as to allow themselves to be sucked into this mess?

The premise of the movie - a young man trapped in a parking garage and evading bad guys pursing him - isn't a bad one. The idea of adding supernatural elements to this premise also could have worked. However, the way that those ideas were executed here make for one of the worst movies I have seen in a long, long time. It seems like EVERYTHING about this movie is botched. Technically, the movie is a mess; the photography is dark and murky, the lighting is inadequate throughout, and the musical score is harsh and annoying. But what's even worse is the way the movie is written and directed. The movie makes no sense, with its constant meandering making you wonder in every scene if what we are seeing is "real" or a fantasy of one of the characters. It's so constantly confusing, I don't know how the heck I managed to watch the entire movie without hitting the eject button on my DVD player. One thing's for certain: I'm not going to seek out any other movies made by this director!

Someone decided to make a thriller and had no money for a decent set, so they probably drove into an overnight car park and made up the story to go with it. It was such a cheap movie that they did could not fill up the car park with more than two or three cars on each level - and the hero (who is not even hunky) manages to dodge his pursuers for the best part of an hour hiding behind and under cars. They obviously had no lighting rig of any sort either.Just to pad it out, the director keeps repeating the same old flashbacks, some times it is just the sound track. This is so irritating that after the sixth repeat of any particular flashback, you feel like throwing any handy projectile at your TV screen.The principal villain turns in a really disinterested performance. Well, what do you expect, when the script is so lame. The stupid young man who opens the parcel he is paid to deliver, and decides he must "save the world" has absolutely no survival skills - twice he could have turned the tables but lamely does not take advantage of the opportunity. His girl friend is no less idiotic.The worst atrocity is the beautiful and talented Sean Young accepting this acting assignment. She must be desperate. Her presence is never explained and her lines are appalling.What a waste of time. Take heed of this and other warnings on these pages. You will regret it if you don't and be angry enough to spend another fifteen minutes complaining in a review the film does not deserve.

You have to appreciate Sean Young in any movie. Classic beauty, from Blade Runner right up till The Drop. This story is about a college student Carter (Bondies) who replies to a bulletin board ad to drive a car from San Francisco to a Los Angeles parking garage for $5,000. He interviews with the client in an odd environment and they mutually agree Carter should take the job. Carter drives to LA uneventfully and arrives In the dead of night. But can't resist the desire to see what he is really transporting and he discovers a key and a briefcase with contents that he doesn't like one bit. Things move a little faster after that as Carter hides the case and then tries to escape from the garage. The people Carter was supposed to deliver the car and case to turn up. Ivy (Young) and Mr. Zero (Savage) as well as their thugs chase Carter around the garage. During the chase Zero and his thugs seem to talk telepathically with Carter and try to convince him to turn in the case by threatening his family, girlfriend, and his life. This also gives the viewer some missing storyline background. Once they capture Carter, the twists start as Carter tries to save mankind. There are a large number of flashbacks for just about everyone in the film to make the garage chase more interesting, but some are indiscernible from current events. The cinematography is good and close ups make the lack of scenery irrelevant. It is nothing like the movie named The Transporter and pretty much stands on it's own as a movie that marries multiple themes. Some things in the movie just don't fit together well and some major questions are left up to the viewer's assumptions. I watch about 10 movies each week mainly while I do paper work and this is very far from the worst movie I have ever seen. If you like unique and fresh plots, don't bother. If you like to see how familiar faces bring their touch to the screen it can be worth watching.