Break Even

 

When it comes to films depicting con jobs, Hollywood has probably covered most, to all, bases. The "Ocean 11" films, "The Sting", "The Italian Job" and the like, we've seen many of them. So when "Break Even" came along, what started with an interesting premise slowly became a disjointed story.

Four friends, Jaq Varrick (Tasya Teles), Sebastian (Brent Bailey), Dash (Erik Fellows) and Rosie (Alisa Reyes) hit the jackpot while scuba diving when they uncover $50 Million in cold hard cash. But the dirty money was planted by crooked DEA officers, Agent Crowe (Joanna Pacula) and Agent Leaman (Ivan Sergei) working for a ruthless drug kingpin, Zalman (James Callis) who wants the money retrieved at all costs. Wrapped up in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, the friends must outwit them both to make a clean getaway with the cash--and their lives.

Others to round out the cast are Steve Guttenberg as Lance, Klea Scott as Mrs. Morten, Joseph D. Reitman as Lt. Mitgang, Bruno Amato as Zalman's driver and Mary Mara as Molly.

This was effectively directed by Shane Stanley ("My Trip to the Dark Side" '14, "Mistrust" '18, "Southern Decadence" '18, "The Untold Story" '19) plus TV and shorts. Certainly this filmmaker can stage and pace his actors effectively, however the directing wasn't extremely memorable. It wasn't a wash--it'll keep the audience's attention, but nothing monumental. It was written by CJ Walley ("Southern Decadence" '18) plus shorts. Considering this writer has minimal feature film experience, it's no surprise that this script had issues. It truly had a very interesting premise in which to work, and as it started with promise, it soon became choppy and disjointed. Maybe because the running time wasn't expressly lengthy, but it was difficult to be reassured that they still had the money when they were forced to change boats and cars. Also, the friends seemed to 'slip into' the whole criminal mindset a little too easily, but, then again, it was only a 95 minute running time. It wasn't a total wash--the action and the fact that there were a couple of surprises kept one somewhat riveted. 

If you like beautiful locales and people steeped in a 'find' that went awry, this will probably appeal to you, but if one is wanting a bit more substance, with a better, more polished script, you might want to pass. This was supposed to be released on 12-1-20, but because of the pandemic, it was sold to a DVD format, which I viewed so I can critique it for you.

Out of 4 Stars: 2                                           Rated: Not Rated                                          96mins.