THE TRUST DVD (2016)




SYNOPSIS: Waters and Stone are two nobody police officers working dull administrative jobs and making extra money selling stolen Civil Service Exams to other officers. When Stone hears a story about a heroin dealer quickly beating his extremely high bail, the two friends set into motion a plan to find the origin of such a large amount of cash. Through diligent police work they follow a trail that leads directly to a custom bank-style vault built into the back room freezer of a small grocery store. They put a plan into motion to rob the vault and split whatever they find inside. But by the time they figure out what the vault contains, it’s already too late to turn back.

MOVIE REVIEW:

The name Nicolas Cage no longer carries the weight of an Oscar winner. The 1996 Academy Award winner has virtually drowned himself in countless, forgettable direct-to-videos titles that you probably need to constant refresh his imdb page to know how many movies he did a year.

In The Trust, Cage plays an underappreciated LVPD cop, Jim Stone and together with his subordinate, David Waters (Elijah Wood from the Lord of the Rings trilogy) work at the evidence department. Despising his day job, Stone stumbles upon a lucrative loot belonging to a drug dealer. Presuming it’s going to be an easy task to break into and remove the loot from the storage place which actually is a vault, Stone ropes in the reluctant Waters in the heist. A plan is concoct and equipment are secured. Will Stone’s plan works in the end?   

Directed by the relatively unknown Brewer brothers, the heist thriller actually started out pretty promisingly. It possessed a slick visual flair and some dark humour along the way liked a Coen flick with Waters and Stone constantly bantering endlessly. There’s also a fun part where Stone went undercover in a hotel to snoop around for information and putting on a fake German accent to get advice from safe experts overseas.     

The movie kind of slow to a crawl just when you thought there’s going to be some excitement brewing when our two goons embark on their grandiose plan to penetrate the vault. Not knowing they are people guarding the area, Stone frantically shot dead one of them and Waters has no choice but to lock up the unnamed woman (Sky Ferreira). At this point, the supposedly fun dark comedy completely turned into something more complex than anything the flimsy script could handle.          

To go into details without spoiling your viewing experience is going to be hard so I’m just going to say the entire affair ended on a somber and head-scratching note. It seems that the filmmakers are trying to teach us a lesson or two about the importance of morality and karma but I digress. This could be potentially a quirky enjoyable little flick if not for the atrocious subpar ending.         

Cage for the most part is enjoyable as Jim Stone at least he is subtler and less wacky than usual. Nowadays you can’t expect anything more from him. Wood surprises us with his quiet, chain-smoking character and a ninety-year-old Jerry Lewis makes a pointless cameo as Stone’s dad. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio commentary by writer/directors Alex and Benjamin Brewer is on the whole like the movie itself sparsely engaging.  

The Dynamics of a Duo has the filmmakers, Cage and Wood talks aboutthe dynamics they shared.

Visuals of Vegas talks about filming in the famous city. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Except for a few loud gunshots and drilling sound effects, the audio is overall serviceable in presenting the dialogue heavy title. Visually, the DVD offers a decent modest transfer for the digitally shot indie movie. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee



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 ABOUT THE MOVIE

Genre: Crime/Thriller
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Elijah Wood, Sky Ferreira, Jerry Lewis
Director: Alex Brewer, Benjamin Brewer
Year Made: 2016

 SPECIAL FEATURES

- NIL

 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Running Time: 1 hr 32 mins
Region Code: 1