Paladin5150
8/10 5 months ago
Very "Fargo-esque" in it's storyline and execution, which kept me interested until about 10 minutes from the end, when the story went off the rails and landed the ending like a drunken Simone Biles after a two day bender. It wasn't HORRIBLE, but you just feel like the writers could have done much better. John Magaro is believable as Ray, the sad sack, low rizz protagonist, simping for his less than faithful wife Stacy-Lynn, whose one claim to fame was she was once a pageant queen, and now has no idea why she married Ray, but, her cheating on him somehow seems to give her some semblance of self esteem. Steve Zahn is sometimes funny, but mostly obnoxious as Skip, Ray's only real friend in the sense that he wouldn't just help you move, but would also help you move a body. He plays a wannabe Private Detective, who finds out Ray's wife is Suzy round heels, and after photographing her on the way to one of her trysts at the local Happytime Motorlodge, gives the evidence to Ray, who not only continues to simp, but, sets out to win back her affections by somehow coming up with the money for her dream beauty salon. The boy's got it bad.
A chance encounter one night ( after Ray had purchased a gun to off himself) has him crossing paths with another mid-wit, who for some reason thinks Ray is a contract killer, and he proceeds to give Ray a deposit on a hit on a local lawyer, who he wants out of the picture for yet to be revealed nefarious reasons. Ray accepts the money, and starts to follow the lawyer around rather amateurishly, so much so that the lawyer susses it out, and proceeds to jump Ray when he returns to his car. A struggle ensues, and, Ray is getting his azz handed to him inside the car, when he grabs the gun he was going to off himself with, and BANG..., the lawyer now has a custom vent port in his cranium. Ray panics, drives into the country, and dumps the rapidly assuming room temperature legal eagle on the side of a dusty road on the outskirts of town.
The problem is though, that unbeknownst to Ray, there is a BONIFIDE scarily psychopathic Hitman, named Harry, played with aplomb by Dylan Baker, who we meet at the very beginning of the movie, enjoying a game of cat and mouse with some random guy whose truck has apparently broken down, and Harry, offers him a ride. The guy looks like HE might actually be a serial killer, and teases Harry, until Harry subtly turns the tables on him in an exchange of banter that has to be seen to be appreciated. We then see Harry on the side of the road, digging a grave, which, you will understand immediately what and why, after the exchange they had in the car. Harry has also come to town to fulfill another contract, which was taken out on the lawyer, who, whoopsie..., has already reached ambient roadside temperature, thanks in no small part to Ray. The problem is Harry is a AMG / DJ Ouik fan, and he NEEDS to get paid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-lixgv_qG0
Hijinks ensue as Harry, who believes in ALWAYS finishing what you started, attempts to track down his $$, while Ray and Skip try to suss out just what in the holy guacamole is actually going down, and who's really zoomin' who. We also meet Kayla,, whose married to Junior, who is Rays boss and also happens to be schtupping Ray's wife, Stacy. Also introduced is Adam, played by Brad Leland, who is a Cal Worthington type of car dealer, whose wife actually holds all the money, and, in spite of his Family friendly reputation, is bumping uglies with a local stripper Angie, played by Galadriel Stineman, who looks a LOT like a former companion of the occupant of the TARDIS, when it was helmed by the eleventh Doctor. Like I said Fargoesque.
On a side note:
https://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/matt-smith-returns-as-16th-doctor-101138.htm
ANYWAY, things eventually come to a head, and again, like FARGO, bodies start piling up, and we're really not sure if ANYONE is going to make it out of this thing alive. I'll leave it up to you if you want to find out how this plays out, and, as I mentioned earlier, the writers were actually keeping all the balls in the air and the plates spinning, until the final 10 minutes or so, when IMO they couldn't figure out how to stick the landing. Again, not HORRIBLE, but just puzzling. Still IMO worth a watch if you liked the original FARGO.