Dirty cops. Check. Pop culture references. Check. Anxiety laced profanity. Check. Money and politics. Check. Looks like we have another cop drama on our hands. Time to get bloody. Bloody stupid.
Marauders, a heist drama that kicks off right but quickly turns into a desperate play on current economic fears, military tropes and conspiratorial plot elements. Armed with a bit of action and a couple brutal kills, there just isn't enough to make this an interesting movie.
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| My mask kicks ass. This movie doesn't. |
A strange thing is happening. Movies that star bigger name actors are steadily finding their way to smaller audiences that don't have to leave the home to watch films that may have been in theaters ten years ago. Advances in entertainment are placing lower budgeted flicks like Marauders directly in our living rooms or home theaters. Although Marauders has that typical cold blue look of most police procedurals and bank robbery films, something is definitely amiss with this VOD flick. Scripting hampers the use of otherwise better than average actors and their talents are wasted on a movie that can't escape the expected plot elements which drag it down from the onset.
A stellar cast stars in this straight to streaming services action crime drama. The movie exists in the same realm as last spring's shoot em up theatrical release, Triple 9 but barely scrapes the surface of becoming mildly engaging. With a bevy of name stars including Adrian Grenier, Christopher Meloni, and an strangely uninspired Bruce Willis, Marauders is a straight up, old school, dirty cop heist flick that looks and sounds great but lacks the narrative execution to keep us entertained. Other cast members include the massive Dave Bautista and the bottom rung character actor Johnathon Schaech in an unbecoming role that perfectly fits his barely surviving career. Meloni and Grenier have a natural chemistry together that's palpable. Sadly, Meloni's Law and Order run casts a long shadow on this typecast role.
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| Someone tell me. How? How did I get here? |
Unless you're a glutton for punishment or can stand seeing talented people waste energy on low grade entertainment, don't spend a second watching this movie. Even though it has some markings of what we love to see in police dramas, there is no emotional connection between the viewer and what's happening on screen. Marauders is an amalgamation of too many other movies thrown into one tasteless stew of bland deliveries and careless writing. With horrendously executed action scenes, it's a no brainer to skip this developmentally challenged stepchild of every bank robbery movie under the sun.
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