4GOT10 (2015) **

4GOT10 plays like one of those Tarantino knockoffs from the ‘90s, minus the black humor and quirky characters.  It’s an Everybody’s-Chasing-a-Bag-of-Money movie.  A crooked cop (Michael Pare), an amnesiac crook (Johnny Messner from Anacondas:  The Hunt for the Blood Orchid), and a Mexican drug lord (Danny Trejo) are among the people after the loot after a shootout in the desert goes awry.  Dolph Lundgren is the DEA agent in hot pursuit of the cash, who may or may not have an ulterior motive.

We spend the most time with Messner.  He kind of looks and acts like a budget version of Hugh Jackman.  Like Wolverine, he spends most of the movie trying to remember who he is, and he doesn’t do a bad job all things considered.  Dolph is fun to watch as the straight-laced Fed.  He wore his nerdy horn-rimmed glasses well.  I know I’d pay good money to see him in a DTV sequel to Falling Down.  It’s Pare who gives the best performance though as the corrupt sheriff who quickly gets in over his head.

Despite the efforts of the first-rate cast, this is a thoroughly routine affair.  You know you’re in trouble from the first scene when the characters are introduced with a freeze frame and a title card with a stupid nickname like “The Kid”, “The Suit”, and “The Enforcer”.  It gets points for the OK twist at the end, and being relatively short, but it’s nothing you haven’t seen before.  One thing is for sure, 4GOT10 will be 4GOT10 not long after you watch it.

AKA:  The Good, the Bad, and the Dead.  AKA:  Forgotten.