The Tax Collector

Bolstered by a diverse and interesting cast of a kind we don’t see nearly enough, it paints a vivid portrait of the seedier side of the Los Angeles underworld.

Despite a lot of admirable aims, such as creating layered roles for the Latino acting community and spending production dollars in areas that could benefit from the economic boost, this grim bloodbath feels too routine to be of much interest.

Does The Tax Collector sound intriguingly bizarre? In actuality, it’s a tediously paced procedural about work-life balance in which suspense-free displays of hackneyed gangbanger signage are filled in with a few flashbacks that look like they were a cut from a much more exciting movie.

It trots out a lot of posturing and a lot of gang-movie clichés but flails instead of giving us much reason to care.

The Tax Collector flings blood, guts, testosterone and Latinx characters to the wall to see what sticks. And in many ways, it pulls that off, especially when all those things are literally splattered on walls.

One of the most atrocious viewing experiences of the year, “The Tax Collector” relies on a trite visual language built on obvious flashbacks and bland imagery that match the unimaginatively dreadful writing where every Latino in sight is a gangster.

Once you get past the horrifically casual racist stereotypes, non-existent character depth, incoherent plotting, clichéd dialogue, and baffling editing, what’s perhaps most insulting is how numbingly boring the whole affair ended up. If you’re going to make a movie this lazily, at least try to make it fun!

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I'll keep it short & ****'s a cool action movie a decent one but had potential to be much better.Best thing is we have never seen Shia LaBeouf like this this was pretty cool.

While I like Shia Lebouf and his acting was ok here, the other actors - most of them - the acting felt so bad. At times I felt like I'm watching Spanish telenovela level acting from 90s. The story was kinda all over the place too and while I had heard the movie was bad, by what I saw in trailer I thought ok probably just people not liking some parts of it but yeah in the end I found it too boring for good action movie (given that I allow action movies have a bit worse plots if they have good action) and too weak plot for any drama etc. Plus the bad acting or whatever it was (felt like it, maybe how it was made or dialogue on its own felt bad) made it worse.I'm only putting 3 here as I managed to watch it all.

In terms of entertainment, frankly there isn't much, especially when Ayer's approach seems more interested in exalting the deplorable narcoculture, in addition to the fact that the conflict is practically as predictable as it is unsatisfactory. Another problem results from its Latino cast, which gets the opportunity to be the lead characters and unfortunately re-nurtures the idea that in the Latino community everyone is either a gardener, a gang member or a cartel member. The Tax Collector doesn't contribute anything relevant or exciting and is perhaps David Ayer's most disappointing work to date. Here the only name that deserves mention is Shia LaBeouf and it's not because he does much with the character but because of his commitment to the role. Something known in him, and even if the material is poor, the guy works.