Among the Beasts

This could have been a very good moving but for the ending and the slow, overly long waste of time building up the Star's poor beleaguered mental state because his buddy was killed in action because of him, he thinks anyway. Then the story plods along and wastes our time with all this mind gaming. The acting was good, actually very good, but it couldn't save it from a slow plodding script and then in the end when you finally think it's going somewhere and the action starts they find some of the kids, shot some of the bad guys and they find out the little girl is in South Africa and the movie ends with : "OK, when do we leave".......and that's it, the movie is over! THAT is why I down graded it!

Former soldier LT (Tory Kittles) feels responsible for one of his men's death. When the guy's 12 year old daughter goes missing, LT sets off to find her, but runs into a dead end. It's one year later and he's a mess. Lola (Libe Barer) and her muscle AJ (Sarunas J. Jackson) comes looking for him. Her 12 year old cousin has been kidnapped but she can't go to the cops. She is the head of a drug crime family while her father is in prison. After the bar fight, I was expecting a black Taken. That's some good times. Suddenly, it's one year later and the pacing takes an unwelcome break. I would have wanted the tension to continue to ramp up. Lola is an interesting twist although I don't buy her as a drug kingpin. The movie turns back into Taken, now with a little girl as his partner. Once they get to the cabin, they would obviously call the cops. At the very least, LT would call all his military buddies. Some are bound to help. Also, I would have expected more firepower from this group.

Jim Norton's appearance in this film was a breath of fresh air, comical and funny. This should lead to bigger and greater roles. An improve machine. With luck one of his many characters, like Chip Chipperson, Doug Bell,Cregg Schinkel, Edgar Melloncamp,Kirk Cinnamon or Ted Scheckler. They unfortunately didn't use any of his musical talents, from his time in bands as Sick F'n Puppies or the more popular band Burnin' Embers. They did however get the brilliant improv performance that the SiriusXM morning radio host brings with his long time partner and genius Sam Roberts. From his first cameo in Spider-Man, several Kevin Smith films and playing the comic legend Don Rickles in The Irishman with Robert DeNiro.