Take Back (2021)

A typical low budget B-grade film that didn't offer up anything new. Producer and director Christian Sesma's directing was decent in some parts, horrible in others - Rourke's hair blowing like Fabio's in slow-mo, especially towards the end which had the lamest and most amateur trade-off/stand-off I've ever seen, it was laughable.

This is the first ever writing credit for Zach Zerries, and it shows. It was riddled with plot holes, predictable, and omg some of the dialogue was horrid. There's a part near the end that Rourke repeated his line; why? I'm shocked that none of the producers including Rourke didn't give the screenplay a once-over to make some much needed edits. The normally comfortable 89 min runtime felt dragged out, and the slow pacing didn't help. There was too much nonsense filler, and the premise of the story needed more substance, and had someone added that to the script, this film could've been way better.

Even the overall sound was bad, like everyone forgot to bring the boom mics up close, instead of hanging high up in the air. The cinematography was good, and the performances were actually not bad, considering Sesma clearly failed in directing his cast properly. Luckily he had some seasoned actors who pulled through, and the White's performances were the stand out for me. Even my boy Rourke seemed bored for most part of the film. Oh, and what was the meaning and purpose of his bandages lol? Sloppy writing, and lots of it. But considering it's from an amateur writer, the blame falls mainly on the experienced director being even sloppier and lazy at his job. A little effort could've gone a long way in this one. But as is, it's only a 5/10 from me.