I thought about not finishing it about 10 minutes into the movie. The premise is pretty straightforward, and the writing is decent if you suspend disbelief. I'm sorry but if you're getting beaten up no sane guidance counselor is going to put it on your record unless maybe the parent/guardian is absentee and no one cares (at most they'll make a notation of the incident and move on). Mother while visibly annoyed and pointing this out just sort of takes the guidance counciler repeating the same thing again as the end of that matter lol (oversimplification).
This is pretty indicative of the rest of the story, there's some truth there and a redemption narrative that attempts to flesh out the characters with Cox passing on his worldly knowledge to the boy and repairing his familial relationship. I liked it up to the last say 10 minutes when dipshit dad abducts the boy and for some reason we need to suspend belief again as calling the cops is NOT on the table. It sets up the final redemption arc that puts away dad for good at the expense of Cox's life (I mean he was going to die anyway right?). I'm sure dad will do just fine in THAT prison.
Overall, it seems that the whole redemption narrative was done perhaps halfway through the movie or at the very least fully when they went to that pool... so the ending kind of made sense just because there would have been nothing left to do for 15 minutes. Yet... if you think about it, dad's friend wasn't exactly a fighter, and dad himself wasn't really a threat (no signs of possession of a knife or gun). Even in his delusion, had the cops been called AND he tried to flee to Tijuana the kid would have been recovered, he would have been arrested, potentially mandatory drug counciling/testing and a restraining order put out not to approach the kid till he got his stuff together then ofc granddad dies and where's the eulogy.
A decent movie, but just a missed opportunity to tighten up the script and give it a little more soul. I suppose the only real gem is that since the kid has already proven himself by kicking his two new bestfriend's asses that if anyone picks on him for his party being ruined will think twice.
This is pretty indicative of the rest of the story, there's some truth there and a redemption narrative that attempts to flesh out the characters with Cox passing on his worldly knowledge to the boy and repairing his familial relationship. I liked it up to the last say 10 minutes when dipshit dad abducts the boy and for some reason we need to suspend belief again as calling the cops is NOT on the table. It sets up the final redemption arc that puts away dad for good at the expense of Cox's life (I mean he was going to die anyway right?). I'm sure dad will do just fine in THAT prison.
Overall, it seems that the whole redemption narrative was done perhaps halfway through the movie or at the very least fully when they went to that pool... so the ending kind of made sense just because there would have been nothing left to do for 15 minutes. Yet... if you think about it, dad's friend wasn't exactly a fighter, and dad himself wasn't really a threat (no signs of possession of a knife or gun). Even in his delusion, had the cops been called AND he tried to flee to Tijuana the kid would have been recovered, he would have been arrested, potentially mandatory drug counciling/testing and a restraining order put out not to approach the kid till he got his stuff together then ofc granddad dies and where's the eulogy.
A decent movie, but just a missed opportunity to tighten up the script and give it a little more soul. I suppose the only real gem is that since the kid has already proven himself by kicking his two new bestfriend's asses that if anyone picks on him for his party being ruined will think twice.