Even the ten rules that the Lance character sets out, are a frivolous exercise, consisting of phrases that hold no meaning, and escape the viewers brain a mere seconds after seeing it. Clearly, Savoy is inspired by films such as Goodfellas or even recently Den of Thieves, but there’s also a lack of confidence in the material, where it is all patched over with montages and narration. The writing from Savoy, Kevin Bernhardt, and Jason Miller has an idea of what is motivating the team and pace it between each job and the riches they enjoy. It’s a heist film that involves a group of masked thieves, running into houses, smashing windows, spray painting walls, and taking revenge on a world that has left them in a ditch. It’s not that Echo Boomers is boring by any stretch. As one could imagine, with this many cooks in the kitchen, egos, and greed, it is only a matter of time before the fun goes sour, and the group is all against one another. The work they do is for a scummy trade dealer named Mel Donnelly (Michael Shannon- the best part of the film), who pays the group handsomely for their stolen goods. We go back to Lance moving to Chicago and meeting Jack’s “friends”, lead by rugged and ticking bomb of anger- Ellis (Alex Pettyfer), along with tech-wiz Stewart (Oliver Cooper), the lone woman and love interest of the group Allie (Hayley Law), and the bone headed muscle guy Chandler (Jacob Alexander). The narrative bounces around from ending to beginning, with Lance in prison and chatting to the author of this story (played by a thankless Lesley Ann Warren). He’s a deer caught in the headlights of life. In Echo Boomers, it is his show, and the character of Lance is a mystery at first. Undoubtedly, a good looking man, but his acting skills are not exactly lighting up the stars of Hollywood. The verdict on an actor like Scwarzenegger is still out. It has a lot of flash and nothing that goes boom. Echo Boomers is a wreckless heist film, filled to the brim with stuffy acting, slick montages, and a bloated script. Now he’s caught in a bad situation, hanging around a crew that wants to get back at the rich for putting them in the position they are in. Little did he know that Jack was in the circles of a group that drove into the wealthy suburbs, trashing homes, and stealing valuable stuff to make a living. The star is Patrick Schwarzenegger as Lance, a recent college grad, moving to Chicago to live with his cousin Jack (Giles Geary), and looking for the first job he can find. Seth Savoy’s Echo Boomers is guilty of all three of these tropes and each one incredibly detrimental to the next. It boils down to three things: 1) the use of voice over narration, 2) based on a true story, and 3) a running list of rules, made up by a lead character, masked as a philosophical way of thinking. I could run off a list of other films, especially romantic comedies or sassy teenage dramas, that make the exact same narrative choices that Echo Boomers does. There is a collection of tropes that are used in movies that, at this point, ruin anything that a director and the underlying message that is trying to be said. STARRING: PATRICK SCHWARZENEGGER ALEX PETTYFER MICHAEL SHANNONĪ’s RATING: 2 STARS (Out of 4)
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