This movie is riveting! I enjoyed every minute of it even though I had low expectations. Netflix always manages to sneak in promotion for movie right before it comes out. How is it that I know about the making a Tyler Perry movie months in advance but found out about this movie from Teyana Taylor being on the red carpet for it after her Golden Globes win? Sure, there are some heavy hitters in this film, but to tell me about it the week or so before gave me pause. Also, if you came to see Teyana Taylor because you saw her in all the promotional interviews and such, don’t expect to see her a bunch in this film. You’ll see her maybe five or six times MAX in this film. You will see Matt Damon and Ben Affleck A LOT, but good job on the marketing team to see Teyana win and use that as momentum to promote this film.
The movie starts with Lt. Dane Dumars (played by Matt Damon) talking with his boss. You might wonder why I point this scene out specifically. I’ll tell you why because his boss asking him if they believe his (Dane’s) alibi is the basis for this entire film and you won’t know that until the tail end of the movie.
So, in short, this story is like most stories about Cartel drugs and money and the morality of the people who find that money. What I don’t think I saw in the promotion of this movie was that this story is based on true events and I’ll tell which events are true. Yes, a Miami-Dade county officer by the name of Chris Casiano did find $24 million dollars in Home Depot buckets in a house of a resident named Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez. No, in the real story, it was not Colombians who stashed the money. It was Cuban marijuana growers. Seems kind of low stakes in the real story.
Here’s what gets interesting, and I will have an aside in a minute. Hernandez-Gonzalez was apparently giving growing advice and selling marijuana in large quantities, but he didn’t want the Feds to know how much he was actually making. So, he started to take sums of money out (under $10,000 to not alert the Feds) and hide it in the walls of his attic. According to one report I read, he forfeited $18 million, got years in jail, and someone managed to keep around $4 million dollars. I believe that’s where they got the idea for Desi’s character to receive 20% for cooperating with the police. Another true part of this film, is that protocol does say that officers on the scene must count the money on scene. In real life, they have to count it twice. My main question is if I were a sergeant or lieutenant on the scene and I found a bunch of money in the walls of an attic, and I can only guesstimate how much there is, how would my superiors know what I actually found? This part of the story baffles me, and if you know someone who is apart of the TNT (Tactical Narcotics Team), please educate me.
Back to the movie. When you do a movie like this with a plot that has been seen over and over again, it could get to be stale. Why is this movie not stale, Amber? (I hear you asking.) Well, dear reader, this movie isn’t stale for a couple of reasons. One, you’re staring at the red herring the entire time but the movie does such a great job with making you think that character is the dirty cop. He isn’t and the movie is counting on your forgetting what his boss said to him in the beginning of the film. Y’all remember Alonzo in “Training Day?” Remember how he had been planning Jake’s takedown all week? This is that. Very calm. Very calculating. Very sinister. You do not feel safe at any point in this movie. Matt and Ben are great at scene partners in this film and I don’t think you can easily say who’s the mole in this film.
Did anyone else think of the scene in “Bad Boys II” where the Johnny Tapia was shooting rats, and his money, because it took so longer to move it at the time? Just me? Nevermind.
Tell me! Did you guess who was the snitch? Would you have taken some money, and why is the answer yes? Tell me what you would spend it on!
