This could be the worst movie I have ever seen. I consider this movie as bad as the Twilight series. Much of the movie is filled with actors who are playing gangsters (besides the actor who plays Bone) trying to wax philosophic, but you can tell they don't really understand what they are actually saying-- beyond Shia, probably, but who the f--- really knows what reality he lives in? For some reason, I thought David Ayer only movie had been Training Day prior to this. I didn't realize that Antoine Fuqua directed that one with Ayer writing. You can tell that Ayer doing double duty in The Tax Collector is a deadly combination. The first problem is that the poster makes this movie look like a Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi, Dusk to Dawn), or Denis Villeneuve's Sicario. Neither of these this movie achieves. I would have done a more sparse poster with Shia LaBeouf's character Creeper on the front with one hand in his suit pocket and the other one wrapped around a .38 Special Snubnose in amid walking with a little swag. Unfortunately, that would have not worked out either, and I will get two why soon enough.

As far as I can remember, the TWO action scenes in this film have little flash or wow factor. Not sure if they had to edit this film down or not, but they are quick and little meaning to the overall plot. You could have gotten the same message/climax they were trying to go for through their extensive and OVER USE of exposition. There is way too much explanation to literary everything in this movie. When there is actually meaningful dialog in this film it's crippled by the MAIN character's delivery and convincingness as the character he is playing. Now, if you were made into thinking that Shia was the main character in this film after watching the trailer, and that he was THE Tax Collector-- well jokes on you, I guess.

Bobby Soto is The Tax Collector in this film, and Shia is actually just the muscle for him. I have never seen Soto before, but he is horrible in this film. I imagined that half way through the film that this must be what watching an episode of Power or Empire must be like. It's like Soto thinks he's in the Latino version of the Young and The Restless, where he is a shot caller, who thinks he can find redemption for the shit he is doing through his god. The scenes where he's supposed to be sad are extremely over overacted. It's like he's in a Mel Brooks movie and Brooks has told him to play up the sadness for just losing his wife. It's almost comical.

I am not some Shia fanboy or anything, but I think he's a genuinely awesome actor from the newer generation. He's the the only actor in this movie who actually convinced me that he was the character he was playing, so much so, I wouldn't want to be alone with him in a room even if he was talking to me about being Ketogenetic. The big problem is that they kill off Shia's character-- the most compelling character-- half way through the film. This took whatever air this movie had left out of it. No chance to see how ruthless and psychopathic Shia's character Creeper could be even though they had been hyping it up throughout the movie. Even if they were trying to make a statement on how everyone is mortal in this film, they could have made him die at the very end in a huge climatic action sequence after taking out the big baddie or getting killed by the cops after taking out the big bad guy. He could of actually had his ride or die moment.

I can't believe I wrote this much about this movie. Maybe I am just angry that it could have been better than it was-- or that I paid $6.00 for it.