By Jacob Cameron

The Get Out comes from the same director as Unhinged and American Dreamer. Two thrillers about people who are thrown into dangerous situations and having to fight their way out. The Get Out is similar to those films without any interesting aspects that made those other two films interesting.

The Get Out was directed by Michael Borte, and it starred Russell Crowe, Aaron Paul, and Luke Evans. It tells the story of a man named Manco, played by Crowe, who runs a nightclub. Manco wants to leave the nightclub behind and retire. When a lone gunman robs Manco, it causes unforeseen ripple effects. The nightclub serves as a front for a ruthless cartel, and the cartel comes after Manco in response. The film also follows the gunman and a mysterious man who wants to buy the club.

As mentioned, Michael Borte directed similar thrillers to this film. American Dreamer is rather underrated and sees a rare chilling performance from stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan. The element that makes that film good, in terms of plot, is that it is singularly focused on the main character. The Get Out is wildly unfocused with connections that feel tenuous at best.

Russell Crowe does a good enough job in his role. Aaron Paul is another version of the Jesse Pinkman character that made him famous here but is also serviceable. Luke Evans doesn’t have many scenes, and the reveal of what his character actually feels is half-baked. Crowe and Paul have interesting stories on paper, but there is a connection between the characters that feels contrived.

Paul’s character is a college professor who is being blackmailed to rob Manco for reasons that make the plot even more needlessly complicated. This almost feels like 3 separate stories crammed into one movie. With the stakes getting raised to cartoonish levels and plot elements that are referenced once and then never again. Manco has heart problems and needs to sell the club for his health, for example.

Paul’s character then gets another character attached to his story that is rather annoying. This character goes through their own journey, and it’s barely a focus. To the point where something happens to the character, they disappear, and then they are not heard from until the very end of the film. With Luke Evan’s character trying to explain everything away in a way that makes some kind of sense.

In the end, this is one of the most confusing movies, plot wise, of the year. Crowe and Paul are good, but there is too much story to make anything matter. Any good story beats are smothered by the mediocre or bad story beats. There are some good ideas here, along with the potential to make an effective thriller, but there’s nothing effective here. This is a film that will start you at letter A, and then it will take you to letter W with no explanation. 

🌟 1/2 stars