I've always wondered why nobody ever thought of pinching the banknotes that were about to be shredded or incinerated and making a killing! Well "Merrimen" (Pablo Schreiber) has alighted on just such a plan - and he aims to relieve the Federal Reserve of $30 million in a daring heist. Unfortunately for him, local cop "Nick" (Gerard Butler) has been following him for an while, and when one of his other would-be raids results in his leaving with nothing but dead policemen in his wake, "Nick" apprehends his suspected associate "Donnie" (O'Shea Jackson Jr), learns of the plan and determines to both thwart it and to apprehend his nemesis. So far, it's all quite interesting and the first half hour is pretty action packed. Thereafter, though, the whole thing sort of grinds to an halt. The planning and execution of their robbery is interspersed with the police counter-plan in a dialogue heavy - frequently peppered with some unedifying homophobic language - and clunkily delivered fashion. There are just too many characters; most people who have a gun couldn't hit a barn door with a shovel and the two leading characters do little, if anything, to engage the audience. I actually found myself wanting "Merrimen" to succeed, and Butler just hasn't the gravitas to carry this for what seemed like an endless 2¼ hours of relentless chases, misses, more chases and more misses before an ending that had a touch of chivalry to it, but that I found not worth the wait.
