Bobby Soto

Cinthya Carmona

George Lopez

Elpidia Carrillo

Shia LaBeouf

Lana Parrilla

Chelsea Rendon

Cheyenne Rae Hernandez

Noemi Gonzalez

Gabriela Flores

Rene Moran

Cle Sloan

Lee Coc

Randy Gonzalez

Michelle Jubilee Gonzalez

Quinn Early

Jay Reeves

Ricardo Gonzalez

Brendan Schaub

Zailee Madrigal

Karrie Martin

Juan Carlos Cantu

Steve Louis Villegas

Valentina Latyna Plascencia

Paola Paulin

Cuete Yeska

Jimmy Smits

Noel Gugliemi

Aaliyah Lopez

Donte Johnson

Jose Conejo Martin

Nayeli Esparza

Richard Mesquita

Christopher Allen Nelson

Chris Long

Carlos “Spiff TV” Suarez

Michael Yezerski

Tyler Thompson

David Ayer

Salvatore Totino

Geoffrey O'Brien

Lindsay Graham Ahanonu

Robert Alonzo

Lisa Pinero

Mary Vernieu

Andrew Menzies

Melanie Wagor

Kelly Finn

Todd Williams

Robert Dierx

Mark Strome

Anthony Matthew Scott

Marcus Taormina

Maurice Fadida

Nick Hermz

Christopher M. Campos

Craig Frosty Silva

John D. Miller

Justin M. Lubin

Kelli Jones

Dan Katzman

Mario Pérez

Lisa Tutunjian

Christopher Brown

Gregory D. Liegey

Victor Capoccia

Angela Latimer

Raylin Sabo

Shannon Avalos

Francesco Sauta

Kevin Perry

Dylan S. Buser

Stephen Ceci

Kelli Marino

Allie Venrick

Yvan Lucas

Lucas Deans

Sarah Wachel

Patty Rhinehart

Ian O'Connor

Travis Geske

Liam A. Miller

Orlando Hernandez

Will Arnot

Lauren Ussery

Kyler Jae

Kevin J. Miller

Andrae Crawford

Action

Crime

Drama

The Tax Collector

Cross Creek Pictures

Cedar Park Entertainment

Faster Horse Pictures

Kodiak Pictures

RLJE Films

United States of America

Español

English

family relationships

I like David Ayer. Based on interviews and his social media postings, seems like a cool guy. As a filmmaker, he's hit or miss ranging from some really solid action-thrillers like U-571, End of Watch and Fury to the poorly made flicks such as Sabotage (though has its moments) and Suicide Squad (which I've soured on over the years).

His latest, the second one straight-to-streaming following Bright, is The Tax Collector, seemingly aspiring to be some sort of modern day Godfather. The editing here is rather bad, acting was mixed with Shia LaBeouf shining brightest to the point I wish the movie was about his character while Bobby Soto has some okay scenes but in the lead, never quite works. And the writing, also by Ayer, was shoddy (shows Training Day was all about Washington's performance than the story or dialogue).

I wanted to really like this film. It had potential and starts off well enough, but after meandering for the first hour or so, doesn't really get off the ground once a story actually kicks in. By the end, despite trying to have some emotional scenes, and a finale that was supposed to be kick ass, never could rebound from all of the other shortcomings. **2.5/5**

The Tax Collector is the second-best David Ayer-directed film (the best remains End of Watch), but it's far from the best David Ayers-penned movie – though to be fair, that includes Training Day and Dark Blue, as well as the aforementioned End of Watch.

The script can be nicely subtle, especially when it comes to the character of Creeper (Shia LaBeouf putting his natural weirdness to good use); he's always impeccably dressed in a suit and tie, but his cauliflower ears are a dead giveaway – here's someone who can take punishment as well as dish it out.

This is great stuff, but at some point you gotta put your money where your mouth is, and that's where the character shortchange us. Much is made of how Creeper has maimed, tortured, and murdered hundreds of people, but in the course of the film he only fires his gun once, and then in self-defense; on the other hand, he's given a martyr's death, but I'm not sure whether we're supposed to feel bad for him or not. If all that's said of him is true, he has it coming to him; if not, we've been fed a line of bullsh*t.

Having said that, the script can also be painfully unsubtle, in particular when it's trying to convince us that the protagonist, David Cuevas (Bobby Soto), is a Killer with a Heart of Gold (talk about a crock of sh*t) – a family man who prays before every meal and advises Creeper to accept Christ in his heart, as opposed to antagonist Conejo (José Martín), who engages in human sacrifices and voodoo rituals.

That's pretty black-and-white, when it should be shades-of-gray; in other words, The Tax Collector's problem is that it insists on splitting its characters into 'bad guys' and 'good guys' when 'bad guys' and 'worse guys' would be a more accurate division.

The Tax Collector - OFFICIAL TRAILER

The Tax Collector( 2020)

Payback comes with interest.

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A review by JPV852

Written by JPV852 on Mon Oct 05 2020

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