MOVIE REVIEW: END OF THE ROAD || Where exactly is the road? [ENG-ESP]
I have lately been looking out to hear about movies from people. I have just basically been asking my peeps for movie recommendations, as I do not understand the streaming service's mode of operation any more, Netflix. It seems just about anything can get to the top.
The End of the Road stars two popular celebrities, Queen Latifah and Ludacris. They are well known for their music, as well as being seen in movies that have made the big shots too. However, this would be the first time they worked on the same film together.
It is an action thriller that centers upon a seemingly dysfunctional family and presents twists in its plot, as you can deduce from its title.
When Brenda's husband dies, she decides to move her family, Reggie (Ludacris), her younger brother, Cam, her son, and Kelly, her daughter, to Texas. They are a somewhat dysfunctional family as a result of her husband's death, and their trip is not as fun as should be expected.
Source
On their way, they get into trouble when Reggie finds and takes money that belongs to a crime boss, Mr. Cross. Brenda tries to return the money in compliance with Mr. Cross's demand for his money, but complications arise.
Without help and being alone in the Mexican desert, they fight for their lives as they have now become targets of the crime boss.
When a family loses their breadwinner, it becomes a real struggle to stand on their feet and function as a family again. This typically results in a dysfunctional setting within the family. The kids may begin to withdraw. The new head may begin to struggle and deal with emotional and physical stress to keep the family together.
This film depicts such a family and their struggle to find balance again. However, faced with undesired happenstance, they tried as a family. The film fuses action, comedy, and thriller elements to deliver this story.
One would think that with two big shots in one film, this should be a hit. And you wouldn't be wrong to think that, as that's how it should be; the bigger the names, the higher the chances of it being a great film. I basically thought so, as the trailer presented something "click-baitish" to me.
The film starts off fine, but as it progressed, I began to wonder if I was missing something and wasn't following along, or if there were elements in the film that truly raised eyebrows.
Scripting! Scripting Scripting! I kept shouting in my head. I do not understand to what extent some filmmakers will continue to be complacent in delivering effective writing in films.
This is right-off-the-bat a dead give away that there was something a little off about this, which I would normally not do. But this time, there is no sugar-coating anything. A review is meant to tell the truth, however subjective it may be.
The film has the right beginning, I guess; one that endeared itself to the audience with the state of the family's instilling sympathy, the comedic dialogues between the family, and the cool music.
However, things were going just fine till Neflix began to do their thing again, shoving what you were already aware of down your throat.
I mean, we already know about racism. And there have been films that did an excellent job of presenting and addressing this. But the portrayal in this film was just superfluous, painting white people as being all bad. It didn't make any sense.
Another topic of concern is the "unveiling of the big bad." There obviously was one, as the name was overstated (to me). And then, when it was revealed, I was not surprised. I felt disappointed, in fact.
The action that they managed to deliver was basically mundane. We will not even get into that. You already get the gist that the scripting was just not right. So let's just move on.
On the other hand, the visual storytelling followed quite a different path to that which the storyline did for the film, which is probably why one may consider giving the film the benefit of the doubt.
Would I say the film seemed like it was going to follow a more "country-like" kind of theme, or should I say setting? Looking at the overall sense of the film, one could say that it actually did have a country-like setting, and this could only be attributed to the film because of its cinematography.
I would definitely commend this aspect, as the film was certainly appealing to see, regardless of the flawed script. And this would be thanks to the excellent framing, color, lighting, and the like.
I could not but wonder if these "big-shots" probably do not get the whole idea, or concept, of the films they work on. I mean, they should know what the story is, really, for them to effectively play their parts. So, it makes me wonder why they do choose to take them, knowing that it's uhhgh humdrum? Oh well...
I had never seen Queen Latifah and Ludacris in the same screenplay (not that I am a big fan), but to see how well they delivered their parts and the connection they had in the film was mostly what made the film a little worthwhile. Ludacris, to me, held the film together with his comedic parts.
I would commend the family dialogue in the film. It is something one could term "natural." Such a dialogue is something normally seen between dysfunctional families in reality.
Every other person than the family in the movie all had performances that just did not "cut it" for me. I mean, the film could have done much better without them, I think.
There are films that I would only choose to see to pass time, the escapist ones, but this one is one that does not even fall under that category.
It's disappointing to see a lot of films released every day and yet the majority of them cannot be appreciated simply because "anything goes" in the industry. One can only hope that the good ones will surface, as they deserve.
This film, in general, could have been a great movie had its scripts been much better. Other aspects of the film were really great.
I will therefore give it a rating of 𝟜/𝟙𝟘.
★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆
Últimamente he estado pendiente de que la gente me recomiende películas. Básicamente he estado pidiendo a mis compañeros recomendaciones de películas, ya que no entiendo el modo de funcionamiento del servicio de streaming, Netflix. Parece que casi cualquier cosa puede llegar a la cima.
The End of the Road está protagonizada por dos populares celebridades, Queen Latifah y Ludacris. Son muy conocidos por su música, además de haberse dejado ver en películas que también han dado el campanazo. Sin embargo, ésta será la primera vez que trabajen juntos en una misma película.
Se trata de un thriller de acción que se centra en una familia aparentemente disfuncional y que presenta giros en su trama, como se puede deducir de su título.
Cuando el marido de Brenda muere, ella decide trasladar a su familia, Reggie (Ludacris), su hermano pequeño, Cam, su hijo, y Kelly, su hija, a Texas. Son una familia algo disfuncional como consecuencia de la muerte de su marido, y su viaje no es tan divertido como cabría esperar.
Fuente
En su camino, se meten en problemas cuando Reggie encuentra y toma dinero que pertenece a un jefe del crimen, el Sr. Cross. Brenda intenta devolver el dinero en cumplimiento de la demanda del Sr. Cross, pero surgen complicaciones.
Sin ayuda y estando solos en el desierto mexicano, luchan por sus vidas ya que ahora se han convertido en objetivos del jefe del crimen.
WRM uando una familia pierde al sostén de la misma, se convierte en una verdadera lucha por mantenerse en pie y volver a funcionar como familia. Esto suele dar lugar a un entorno disfuncional dentro de la familia. Los niños pueden empezar a retraerse. El nuevo cabeza de familia puede empezar a luchar y lidiar con el estrés emocional y físico para mantener la familia unida.
Esta película describe a una familia de este tipo y su lucha por encontrar de nuevo el equilibrio. Sin embargo, ante una casualidad no deseada, lo intentan como familia. La película fusiona elementos de acción, comedia y thriller para ofrecer esta historia.
Uno podría pensar que con dos grandes nombres en una película, ésta debería ser un éxito. Y no se equivocaría al pensar eso, ya que así es como debe ser; cuanto más grandes sean los nombres, mayores serán las posibilidades de que sea una gran película. Básicamente lo pensé, ya que el tráiler me presentaba algo "click-baitish".
La película empieza bien, pero a medida que avanzaba, empecé a preguntarme si me estaba perdiendo algo y no me estaba siguiendo, o si había elementos en la película que realmente levantaban las cejas.
¡Scripting! Scripting ¡Scripting! gritaba en mi cabeza. No entiendo hasta qué punto algunos cineastas seguirán siendo complacientes a la hora de ofrecer una escritura eficaz en las películas.
Esto es un aviso inmediato de que hay algo que no funciona, lo que normalmente no haría. Pero esta vez, no hay que endulzar nada. Una crítica debe decir la verdad, por muy subjetiva que sea.
La película tiene un comienzo correcto, supongo; uno que se hace querer por el público con el estado de la familia infundiendo simpatía, los diálogos cómicos entre la familia, y la música genial.
Sin embargo, las cosas iban bien hasta que Neflix empezó a hacer de nuevo lo suyo, metiéndote por la garganta lo que ya conocías.
Es decir, ya conocemos el racismo. Y ha habido películas que han hecho un excelente trabajo de presentación y tratamiento de esto. Pero la representación en esta película era simplemente superflua, pintando a los blancos como si fueran todos malos. No tenía ningún sentido.
Otro tema que preocupa es la "revelación del gran malo". Obviamente había uno, ya que el nombre era exagerado (para mí). Y luego, cuando se reveló, no me sorprendió. De hecho, me sentí decepcionado.
La acción que consiguieron ofrecer fue básicamente mundana. Ni siquiera vamos a entrar en eso. Ya tienes la idea de que el guión no era el adecuado. Así que sigamos adelante.
Por otra parte, la narración visual siguió un camino bastante diferente al del argumento de la película, por lo que probablemente se pueda considerar que se le da el beneficio de la duda.
¿Diría que la película parecía que iba a seguir un tema más "campestre", o debería decir de ambientación? Si se observa el sentido general de la película, se podría decir que en realidad tiene una ambientación de tipo rural, y esto sólo podría atribuirse a la película por su fotografía.
Yo recomendaría definitivamente este aspecto, ya que la película era ciertamente atractiva de ver, independientemente del guión defectuoso. Y esto sería gracias a los excelentes encuadres, colores, iluminación y demás.
No pude evitar preguntarme si estos "peces gordos" probablemente no entienden la idea, o el concepto, de las películas en las que trabajan. Es decir, deberían saber cuál es la historia, en realidad, para poder interpretar eficazmente sus papeles. Por lo tanto, me pregunto por qué eligen tomarlos, sabiendo que es uhhgh monótono? Oh bien...
Nunca había visto a Queen Latifah y a Ludacris en el mismo guión (no es que sea una gran fan), pero ver lo bien que interpretaron sus papeles y la conexión que tuvieron en la película fue, en gran parte, lo que hizo que la película valiera un poco la pena. Ludacris, para mí, sostuvo la película con sus partes cómicas.
Me gustaría elogiar el diálogo familiar en la película. Es algo que se podría calificar de "natural". Ese diálogo es algo que se ve normalmente entre familias disfuncionales en la realidad.
Todas las demás personas que aparecen en la película, aparte de la familia, tienen interpretaciones que no me convencen. Creo que la película podría haber estado mucho mejor sin ellos.
Hay películas que sólo elegiría ver para pasar el rato, las escapistas, pero ésta es una que ni siquiera entra en esa categoría.
Es decepcionante ver que cada día se estrenan un montón de películas y que la mayoría de ellas no pueden ser apreciadas simplemente porque en la industria "todo vale". Sólo cabe esperar que afloren las buenas, como se merecen.
Esta película, en general, podría haber sido una gran película si sus guiones hubieran sido mucho mejores. Otros aspectos de la película fueron realmente geniales.
Por tanto, le daré una calificación de 𝟜/𝟙𝟘.
★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆
ℍ𝕖𝕪, 𝕚𝕗 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕖𝕟𝕛𝕠𝕪𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕡𝕠𝕤𝕥, 𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕝𝕪 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕒 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥, 𝕣𝕖𝕓𝕝𝕠𝕘, 𝕠𝕣 𝕦𝕡𝕧𝕠𝕥𝕖. 𝕀𝕥'𝕝𝕝 𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕓𝕖 𝕒𝕡𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕚𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕕.
Well well if it isn't another flop. After seeing the title of your review I went ahead to check out the trailer before reading the review. The trailer sure presented a good story but it was not as intense as trailers normally are. I was hoping to read that the movie turned out to be good but I guess I was wrong. 4/10 is a pretty low score.
It's normal to see huge names get cast in movies like this maybe to boost the hype. Still, big names cannot really save a movie that's doomed to fail. Maybe the actors' charisma can really help if the scripts are not bad.
A really big killjoy in movies is when you already know what's going to happen. Seems like something like this happened in this film when it came to "unveiling the big bad". If such an event can just ends up being not so much of a surprise, it can destroy the entire film for me.
Great review man. I hope you see better movies this weekend. Life's too short to waste time on crappy productions :)
The trailer did alright, and that's how I ended up seeing the film, but I was disappointed to find that it wasn't as good.
Or maybe I raised my standard for movies too high...
Regardless, I will try to see better movies instead. Life's too short to waste on...
A 4/10 wow. Means this movie didn't live up to the big characters present. So sad.
If only they did match it up with the big names, it may have been a banger. But, oh well...
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So this is the movie that we need to run away...thanks for the tip
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I saw a small preview of the movie on Netflix and it didn't really catch my attention, I saw Ludacris in that scene and I wasn't convinced by his character. I have discarded it, for the moment I don't plan to see it. 😅
😂
The trailer seemed okay, that's why I went on to check it out.
I only stay till the end of the movie just because of a review - I might as well have just discarded it like you. 😁
4/10 Well i had it on my ignore list but now im gonna avoid it like it was a decease, thank you for saving me time :D
Haha... you could do that.
Yay! 🤗
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