Bad Turn Worse (2014)

Saw this 2 years ago and decided to rewatch it today.I literally remembered nothing about it except that I found it underwhelming but passable as a time-waster.Rewatching it today unfortunately I ended up focusing on the wrong things, like for instance the acting which was subpar for the morepart. Mark Pellegrino is an alright baddie but the youngsters in the lead didn't really impress.Especially Jeremy Allen White who had a constant blank face in every scene even in the most intense life-threatening ones and we are supposed to root for him after all which is hard when even he doesn't show signs of caring.But he's young and I'm sure he'll do better in other things.The pace doesn't help either as it highlights the flaws more than anything else.So yeah definitely not a movie you end up watching over and over again, I know 2 times is more than enough in fact I should have stuck at 1.

They say that the friends you make in school will be your friends for life. The film Bad Turn Worse explores these bonds and shows just how tight they can be. B.J. (Logan Huffman) is your typical Texas High School senior, who is more concerned with meeting the right people, and getting a good job, then he is about going to college, which present a problem in regards to his best friend and girlfriend, who are both headed towards university. B.J. wants to leave his friends on a high note, and decides in order to accomplish this, he needs to "borrow" some money from his shady boss. What B.J. doesn't know is just how connected his boss really is, and once it's discovered that he took the money, his life, and the lives of his two closest friends end up being in jeopardy. Logan Huffman stars and fails to follow up on the success he had in his debut film, Underdogs. In that film, Huffman looked like he would be the next big thing in Hollywood, but playing a dim-witted character in a somewhat anti-climatic story didn't do him any favors. He is paired with Jeremy Allan White, better known as Lip, in the hit series Shameless. I was hoping to see him open up and show some range with this role, but the truth is he was just playing the same character, a highly intelligent young adult who makes poor choices. As far as the story goes, it was pretty interesting, but there are too many breaks in the main story, which distract you from the big picture. There is a lot of discussion and strains on the groups friendship, which pop up at the absolute worse times and pretty much stop the film dead in it's tracks. Bad Turn Worse really did feature a pretty good story, with a ton of up and coming young Hollywood talent. It's very appealing in many ways, but also disappointing in others.

B.J. (Logan Huffman), his book-loving girlfriend Sue (Mackenzie Davis) and best friend Bobby (Jeremy Allen White) live in a small Texas town. Sue and Bobby are looking to leave for college. B.J. is acting up. He's jealous of them leaving and angry at their unspoken sexual chemistry. He had stolen money from their local criminal boss Giff (Mark Pellegrino). Giff starts beating on the Mexican guard and Bobby falsely confesses to the theft. Giff kills the guard anyways. Bobby is shocked that it turns out to be $20k from Big Red (William Devane) and Giff wants Bobby to repay it. Giff tells them to rob Big Red.I like the young threesome. I'm a big fan of Jeremy Allen White in Shameless. Mackenzie Davis has a powerful energy about her. Logan Huffman grows on me with his creepiness. I do wonder why either of them likes B.J. but that's not out of the question in a small town. My first problem is Bobby's false confession. Bobby is not an idiot. He knows it's at a minimum $2000 and he couldn't pay that back himself. At first, I thought he was related to Giff and therefore not afraid of being killed by him. It simply doesn't make any sense other than the need to advance the plot. It could have been done in a different way. The Mexican could have falsely fingered Bobby before being killed. B.J. could have double-crossed Bobby. I don't buy Bobby volunteering to take the fall. I still like the threesome and I love the pulpy hard-boiled noirish style but it's hard for me to overcome the misstep.

This film is an example of that very specific sub-genre, the Texas neo-noir. That American state seems to have all the right ingredients for modern noir, with its sun-baked, dusty, dead-end towns, restless people in them trying to get out of them and places seemingly so remote that the law is run by its own set of rules. We Gotta Get Out of This Place is certainly a movie that exists in the twilight world of this sub-genre. Its story revolves around three young people caught up in a situation. Bobby and Sue plan to leave for good to go to college, while B.J. chooses the faster route of crime. He steals money from a local thug and all three of them pay the price for his actions. They are coerced into stealing money from an even bigger gangster putting themselves in grave danger in the process.This product of the American indie scene is typified by a fine script. It's helped even further by being acted out by a talented cast of actors. A couple have some pedigree but the three kids are all impressive newcomers. The name actors are Mark Pellegrino, whom I remember from being the bungling hit-man from Mulholland Drive (2001), in this picture he's still a violent criminal but a good deal more threatening; we also have veteran William Devane, star of several 70's classics like Marathon Man (1976), who here has no more than a cameo role. But its arguably the three younger actors who make the most impact, namely Mackenzie Davis as Sue, Logan Huffman as the reckless B.J. and finally the young Chris Penn lookalike Jeremy Allen White as the dim-witted but good natured Bobby. The strengths of this film lie predominantly with the dialogue and performances, both of which are impressive. The cinematography is often fine too with some dusky shots of wind turbine landscapes being particularly standout, while the moody score put me in mind of the one used in Blood Simple (1984) and any comparison to that masterpiece of the Texas neo-noir sub-genre is of course a very good thing. The story itself is maybe a little over-familiar for those who have seen their share of neo-noirs and it doesn't necessarily pan out into anything too unexpected by the end. Still, that doesn't change the fact that this is still well worth your time and is a quality product overall.