Pros and Ex-Cons is a truly awful film. Originally released in Australia in 2005, this pointless little action-thriller which tries to mimic Snatch and Pulp Fiction is of such low quality, that I am actually still trying to recover from the trauma caused from viewing this unmitigated disaster. The box art is extremely misleading, having Aussie heartthrob Sam Worthington (Avatar, Terminator Salvation) appearing front and center when he was merely a supporting player in this stinky debacle.
The convoluted plot revolves around a very random group of people. There are two office drones who decide to rip off a bank ala Superman III and a bunch of slackers who get involved with an angry mob boss. Somehow, these two groups of nincompoops cross paths and soon, bullets fly, bodies pile up and audiences’ brain cells sadly die. Sam Worthington plays a dopey hitman who adds tension to the proceedings and I really do hope James Cameron didn’t make his casting decision for Avatar based on this dreck.
Pros and Ex-Cons wants so badly to be a Quentin Tarantino film. The filmmakers behind this picture basically took the plots of classic 90s crime-thrillers and watered it down with a low budget, crummy script and horrible actors. It is a senseless, uninspired mess that dreams of being something bigger than it really is. The picture quality looks like a soft-core porno flick and the acting is among the worst I have ever seen. Movies this bad are cranked out constantly. Will it ever end? Will quality eventually triumph over quantity? I sure hope so. Please do yourself a favor and skip this junk.
DVD Bonus Features
There are some trailers for other bad Lionsgate action films and that’s it.
"Pros and Ex-Cons" is on sale June 7, 2011 and is rated R. Action, Crime-Thriller. Written and directed by Tim Boyle. Starring Ben Dalton, Brett Stiller, Brian Cobb, David Wheeler, Jason Crewes, John Boxer, Sam Worthington, Selwyn Pretorius, Steve Bastoni, Tamara Cook.
