I suppose the "born to lose" store robberies would have been under the radar of the feds, except for the fact that the guy committed multiple murders while doing the robberies. It might have made sense if not for that.

@MongoLloyd said:

I suppose the "born to lose" store robberies would have been under the radar of the feds, except for the fact that the guy committed multiple murders while doing the robberies. It might have made sense if not for that.

Yeah, but I don't think your average 7-11's (or similar stores) carry huge amounts of cash not to mention your average frat bros so it would mean they would have to knock over a whole bunch of stores and people to get enough money for an armored van. A store like that where anyone can walk in any minute wouldn't make much sense when you consider the risk of getting caught vs. potential gains and is a rather questionable decision. At least in the bank robbery they did their darndest to plan the thing and made sure nobody could walk in on the robbery. As you said, not sure why they went out of their way to brutally kill everyone in the robberies as it would only draw more heat to them. Not sure your average meticulous robber would waste precious minutes/seconds to hang around at the robbery scene and slash a strangers genitals for no real purpose and a lot of the violence in the movie seemed rather gratuitous, but I suppose it's the directors style, and it did build up the robbers to some extent, and I did like the film for the most part either way.

@aholejones said:

I didn't really understand the part where the henchmen go around robbing 7-11's and random frat bros. I assume they did it to acquire the money to pay for the armored van, but seems like a very and unnecessarily high risk way to finance something like that. The part towards the end with the kidnapped woman didn't really make much sense either. I mean they somehow convince her to shoot the cop(s) by threatening her, but she somehow doesn't factor in the fact that one of them is going to shoot her in return. Not to mention how the cops let her crawl over there in the dark without really even knowing if she is an accomplice or even the woman in the first place.

Mostly minor nitpicks, though, in an overall good movie and I'd give it a 7.5 or maybe even an 8.

Agreed. They would have to knock over/mug a bunch of people to gather that much money. Not to mention the weapons they carried, MP7/CZ Scorpions arent cheap in full auto. Considering MP7s arent even sold to civilians at all. They didnt seem like professionals at all, jsut a bunch of blood thirsty mercs. And the lady hostage part made sense since she probably had a family at home so she would do anything they told her to protect them. But the cops should have known that they wouldnt just let her go especially after learning how they killed 5 people in the bank. That was sloppy. I also had issues with Gibson pulling the gun out in the car instead of just shooting Johns in the back or pulling it out on him outside of the car and making him throw him the cell.

@aholejones said:

I didn't really understand the part where the henchmen go around robbing 7-11's and random frat bros. I assume they did it to acquire the money to pay for the armored van, but seems like a very and unnecessarily high risk way to finance something like that. The part towards the end with the kidnapped woman didn't really make much sense either. I mean they somehow convince her to shoot the cop(s) by threatening her, but she somehow doesn't factor in the fact that one of them is going to shoot her in return. Not to mention how the cops let her crawl over there in the dark without really even knowing if she is an accomplice or even the woman in the first place.

Mostly minor nitpicks, though, in an overall good movie and I'd give it a 7.5 or maybe even an 8.

the woman didn't really have choice even if she knew she is going to get shot, she wanted to protect her family even while she is going to die obliging their commands, so either she is going to die and her family too or she could at least try her best saving her family

Agreed. It was implied it was to finance the van, but they would have needed to knock off so many stores to make enough money for something like that, and agree that the murders and style of robbery would have made it a massive manhunt. Good film overall though.

There's more than a few plot holes in this tale, or if you prefer, things that make no sense at all. That, coupled with some of the most stilted dialogue you are ever likely to hear in a movie, makes for a movie that for me was at times really irksome.

Once I got past the unavoidable realisation that Zahler is a poor man's Tarantino and accepted it for what it was, it's a reasonably entertaining movie if you don't think too much.

This is a movie that says to hell with any kind of real world referents. It's a sort of cartoon. Almost a parody: certainly a caricature. The movie works to a limited degree if you are prepared to accept the conceit of what the writer is trying to do. Personally I think Zahler should have spent more time watching movies in the genre he is attempting to plug into before attempting this. Of course this is where Tarantino delivers- not only is he a very good story teller, but he clearly knows deep in his bones how these sorts of movies work. Zahler's work here is superficial and thoughtless and nowhere is that more evident in the 'questionable parts' of the story.

Agree with all the criticisms. Also the minor focus on Jennifer Carpenters character could and should have been cut out. Totally unnecessary and had no bearing on the story. The whole scene of the bank celebrating her return to work, along with the unusual dialogue, was just...wierd.