ARSENAL (2017) An Extremely Slow, Mundane Action Flick

Arsenal is a 2017 film that stars John Cusack, Nicolas Cage, Adrian Grenier, and a few others. The film is directed by Steven C. Miller (Line of Duty, Marauders, Silent Night).

The OFFICIAL spin on the film is:

A powerful action thriller, ARSENAL tells the intertwining stories of the Lindel brothers, Mikey (Johnathon Schaech) and JP (Adrian Grenier), who had only each other to rely on growing up. As adults, JP found success as the owner of a construction company, while Mikey became a small-time mobster, mired in a life of petty crime. When Mikey is kidnapped and held for a ransom by ruthless crime boss Eddie King (Nicolas Cage), JP turns to the brothers' old pal Sal (John Cusack), a plain clothes detective for help. In order to rescue his brother, JP must risk everything and unleash his vengeance against King's relentless army of gangsters.

The film has a slow, melodic background music track that sets it aside from other movies, in such a way that it makes the film feel extremely slow. The runtime is 1h 37m, but by the halfway mark, you feel like you've already suffered through a slow two-hour movie.

The first act and most of the middle act is background story that leads up to the brother getting kidnapped. But the story is such that you still don't care about anyone in the film.

How Cage or Cusack got caught up in the film, I have no idea, unless they owed someone money or are desperate for work...  I don't know. Cage's role doesn't even deliver on what you would expect from Cage, as he plays a bad, cheap version of Marlon Brando's Vito Corleone.

As the big climax of the story comes around and the brothers get revenge, Miller tries too hard to make an attempt at unique fight coreography, slowing the action moments down wayyy too slow.

Overall, I gratuitously used the 30-second jump button near the end and I felt like I missed nothing.

'Nuff said!

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