211 (2018) *

211 begins laboriously with an extended sequence in Afghanistan detailing how an embezzler is ambushed by ruthless mercenaries demanding a million-dollar payment.  Then, there’s a bunch of rigmarole involving an Interpol investigation, which eats up even more time.  This shit is boring and clunky.  Why is it even here?  Because if we didn’t have these long, superfluous sequences, 211 would’ve only been 75 minutes long.

There’s also a subplot about Nicolas Cage losing his wife, his daughter getting pregnant, and his son in-law coming to terms with his upcoming brush with fatherhood.  It takes a good twenty minutes before the REAL story begins to take shape.  A teenager (Michael Rainey, Jr.) gets into a fight at school, and as punishment, he is sent to do a ride along with a crusty cop (Cage) and his partner (his son in-law).  Naturally, they just so happen to be cruising around when the mercs try to knock off the bank where the embezzler dude hid his loot.

All of this helps to keep Cage offscreen for much of the early going.  In fact, it takes ten minutes before we see our first fleeting glimpse of him and by the time he says his first line of dialogue, the movie is already a quarter of the way over.  By the time the heist goes down and Cage, his son in-law, and the kid are caught in the crossfire, it’s hard to care much one way or the other.  Maybe we would feel different if the plot, drama, and action didn’t feel like something out of an old TV pilot.

Needless to say, fans of even the worst of Cage’s DTV output will walk away disappointed from this one.  He only gets one brief moment when he gets to go in full-on Cage mode as he yells, “MY SON IS DEAD!” at his superior, which isn’t much consolation.  Other than that, this is wholly forgettable in just about every way.

In short, the 411 on 211 is dial 911.

AKA:  The Bank Heist.  AKA:  Code 211.  AKA:  211:  Cops Under Fire.