Writer: Charles Burmeister (Screenplay)
Starring: Scott Eastwood, Nick Chinlun, Andy Garcia, Jorge A Jimenez, Justin Arnold, Justin Park, Angela Sarafyan
Plot: A troubled man runs away to Mexico and is recruited to join a paramilitary group of teens fighting the drug cartels. He proves himself to the group, but questions their motive.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Forgettable Actioner
Story: Mercury Plains starts Mitch (Eastwood) a young man from a dead-end town in Texas travels to Mexico with his friend Jesse (Park) they find themselves in trouble, Jesse brings Mitch to meet The Captain (Chinlund) a freedom fighter against the drug market in Mexico.
Upon joining the group Mitch learns not everything is as it seems as the rest of the group seem just like runaways looking for trouble, rather than himself just looking for a fresh start. Mitch slowly becomes the big brother figure to the rest of the boys as he learns this all feels like more of a cult rather than a legal unit.
Thoughts on Mercury Plains
Characters/Performance – Mitch leaves his abusive life with no future behind him to travel to Mexico, he does want to a job and his own life but in Mexico he joins a group that claim to be fighting drug dealers. He is turns into a mentor like character to the younger members of the group as he sees the error of the ways. The Captain leads the boys in this freedom fight but it appears he isn’t as honest as it seems.
Performance wise, this is a film designed to see if Scott Eastwood can be like his father and while he is leaps and bounds above the rest of the cast he is only good in this role.
Story – The story does have a slow pace about it, we have elements of coming of age for the teenage boys needing to learn life lessons and seeing how Mitch evolves through the story is good to see. The problem here does come with the fact this isn’t the most interesting story and in places does just come off boring at times.
Action/Adventure – The action is very basic through the film, we don’t get much going on through the film, the adventure shows life lesson learned by the people involved.
Settings – We have the remote settings which helps keep things low budget as the leader can make himself the king in the middle of nowhere showing us the settings working well.
Final Thoughts – This is a largely forgettable movie that just doesn’t hit the levels it could and just becomes something you won’t care about.
Overall: Skip it, or regret it
Rating