Debt Collectors (2020)
New music biz dramas, casino crime and science fiction debut this week.
Debt Collectors (Streaming on VUDU, May 29)
This action genre buddy flick re-teams martial arts action star, Scott Adkins, with Aussie actor, Louis Mandylor. They’re a pair of debt collecting enforcers known as French and Sue, respectively. Returning from 2018’s "The Debt Collector," the duo's chemistry gives rise to credible action and comical disagreements. They are dispatched to Las Vegas to collect from a dirty casino owner, Sue omitting the fact their subject is also his ex-lover. She pays off with nary a scuffle, prompting Sue to warn French that “Something isn’t right.” Sure enough, a ruthless drug lord, out for revenge, is hot on their trail. Old-fashioned, close quarter combat, dominates, though French and Sue know their way around a gun-fight as well. While its plot is loosely knitted, “Debt Collectors” delivers a buddy-formula good time.
The High Note (Streaming on Fandango & VUDU, May 29)
Dakota Johnson (daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith) portrays wanna-be music producer Maggie, while Tracee Ellis Ross (daughter of Diana Ross), appears as aging superstar, Grace Davis. Well into her 40s, Grace longs for new hits and challenges, but is rebuffed by manager Jack Robertson (Ice Cube), insistent they continue her profitable, but soul-sucking, best hits tour. Grace overworks personal assistant Maggie, unaware of her employee’s hidden talents. During a brief break, Grace records a new song sent off for slumber in the vault by manager Robertson. Secretly, Maggie engineers and produces a cut of the song, which she reveals to her stunned employer, leaving them both to make life-altering choices. Great chemistry between the three principals, and an insightful, if conventional screenplay, round out this enjoyable drama-dey.
THE VAST OF NIGHT (Streaming on Amazon, May 29)
An audience award winner at Slamdance, “The Vast of Night” marks the stylish debut of director/co-writer, Andrew Patterson. Unusual visual sequences and perspectives surprise and hold our attention, although anticipated evidence of extraterrestrials never materializes. Instead, a dramatically tense screenplay focuses on young, graveyard telephone operator Fay (Sierra McCormick), and her fellow investigator, rookie radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz). The pair seek the origin of a signal disrupting both telephone connections and radio transmissions in their 1950s hamlet, fictional Cayuga, New Mexico. While most residents attend the year’s biggest high school basketball game, Fay and Everett visit old-timers with incredible stories to tell. Conspiracy theories take Fay and Everett on a paranoid journey that eventually demands they believe the unproven or give in to so-called rational explanation.
