I am not in the entertainment industry, so I don't know how people like Stallone and even Modine would accept to play in something that is obviously crap. People used to respect these guys! I mean, think about the early Stallone stuff and know this is way worse than that. It's a beyond low budget production, only meant to get more money that they put in by dangling the cast in front of people. This is not a movie so bad it is funny, this is not a movie that someone tried to make interesting and failed, this is clearly a scam. It's criminal and every person watching is a victim. It doesn't have a story! I mean it. There is an old amnesiac guy (Modine) to whom some people give an experimental drug to in order to remember where he hid some money. Stallone appears at the beginning and at the end. Nothing happens. Nothing! There are some really bad scenes where people shoot at each other and then the film ends. The editing, the acting, the filming, everything is just bad! You've been warned.
111 Reviews
Who writes and produce this crap!!
hypnotic-7915315 December 2018
Warning: Spoilers
This whole movie was poorly executed
A complete waste of money and time.
For example you have cops with bullet proof vest getting shot in the vest and dying. You have Sylvester Stalone heading into a gun fight with a pistol against men with machine guns no backup. (Greatest action hero my ass)
He comes out without a scratch doesn't even check on his fellow officer at the end and he lets the bank robber walk.
A typical below average action flick which will be forgotten.
theromanempire-11 February 2019
The only reason I went to see this is cause I love stallone and I watch every movie he does so I went to see this despite that I knew it's going to be poor from what I heard so far.
this time those reviews were right. the movie was not good but it was not crap either. it was just a C- below average flick which will be forgotten soon.
problem was the flawed scenario mostly and the acting was not the best either but also we saw that stuff like a million times already.
this movie could be passable like 40 years ago. not now.
Even stallone if u exclude last like 10 minutes had not been in the movie for more than like.....another 10 minutes. he had a supporting role. not the lead role.
Anyways.....if by any chance u wanna check this out I recommend strongly only to rent this movie once or to watch it on tv anyhow.
don't waste your time watching this flick in a theater even if u love stallone as stallone don't appear much in the film anyways.
it's a C - from me and that cause of stallone mostly.
Bad, real bad, a shame, I can't believe how bad it was...
michelorologio26 December 2018
A real shame, the worst movie I've seen in 2018....Sly must have needed the money, and he's in the movie at max 50% of it, bad actors, horribly filmed, stupid scenario, what more can I say, he should be ashamed at this stage of his career to participate in junk like that....avoid it and you'd do yourself a favour....
Stallone's Worst Film
NickGagnon94222 August 2019
So at the store last week and along with getting Avengers Endgame on Blu Ray I noticed a pretty new action/thriller with Sylvester Stallone and Matthew Modine called Backtrace. But you know something is wrong when the film is less than a year old and the Blu Ray is already in the bargain bin. The film is just a very boring mess that run 82 minutes (without credits) and still could have been at least 20 minutes shorter.
The plot has a thief (Matthew Modine) and a few other criminals getting shot down by their partners. Modine survives but looses his memory. Seven years later 3 people break him out of a high security facility and put experimental drugs in him. Most of the film is watching Modine have painful flashbacks and looking for bags of money. We get some scenes of Stallone in random cop exposition scenes. But most of the film is just boring scenes of them looking for bags of money. Very little happens in the film. There is two shootout scenes but nothing that exciting. The whole film lacks in every department especially in character development. This is Stallones worst work.
The plot has a thief (Matthew Modine) and a few other criminals getting shot down by their partners. Modine survives but looses his memory. Seven years later 3 people break him out of a high security facility and put experimental drugs in him. Most of the film is watching Modine have painful flashbacks and looking for bags of money. We get some scenes of Stallone in random cop exposition scenes. But most of the film is just boring scenes of them looking for bags of money. Very little happens in the film. There is two shootout scenes but nothing that exciting. The whole film lacks in every department especially in character development. This is Stallones worst work.
I gave it a 1 because they showed up
gazzyace19 December 2018
It's all about the Money
FilmMcCool15 February 2019
What a terrible movie but for Sly Stalone to appear in this muck and other A list actors doing similar belies the, "It's all about the art" argument actors spout. In a world where A list actors are doing TV advertisements, heretofore work that was left for actors who had a bad time making a living from acting, proves to me "It's all about the money" and these A list actors are part of the GAA, Grab All Association, in other words they will do anything for money and to hell with the art.
Even the actors look bored
Saiph901 July 2019
Warning: Spoilers
I have never seen a film were every one looks so bored, the writing and score are really bad, the dialogue pitiful and the music overbearing. There are so many plot holes you could drive a horse and carriage through them, so the story, after a bank robbery one of them is left with no memory, seven years go by, strangely no one ages. The penal system is so lax they allow his son to be incarcerated and his daughter in law a job as a nurse, obviously wearing spectacles and your hair in a pony tail throws them off the trail. When getting out the prison beeping your horn means they will not search a car. Syl Stone sleep walks through the film putting drawing pins in a cork board, why after 7 years do they still have this in the middle of the office.
Oddly as it is his father he has no hesitation in injecting him with a 20% chance of killing him. The film limps to a boring end and Sly tops up his pension, awful film.
Oh Boy, I wasted an Hour and Thirty Two minutes
arfdawg-117 December 2018
Formulaic movie that is directed like a TV film with too many close up to hide the lack of sets and pretty bad acting.
It's sad that a decent actor like Mathew Modine got sucked into this garbage, but even he is a deer in the headlights delivering some of the worst lines in history.
The movie is slow to a fault and the direction is truly horrendous. The writing is 6th grade.
You'll be waiting a long time -- nearly a third of the film -- to see Stallone who walks thru his role and man, is he dough face. Too much muscle juice will do that to you.
His delivery is also rather odd. He sounds like he had a stroke! So strange.
Please don't bother with this film. I wasted an hour and half watching this garbage.
It's sad that a decent actor like Mathew Modine got sucked into this garbage, but even he is a deer in the headlights delivering some of the worst lines in history.
The movie is slow to a fault and the direction is truly horrendous. The writing is 6th grade.
You'll be waiting a long time -- nearly a third of the film -- to see Stallone who walks thru his role and man, is he dough face. Too much muscle juice will do that to you.
His delivery is also rather odd. He sounds like he had a stroke! So strange.
Please don't bother with this film. I wasted an hour and half watching this garbage.
Nothing worse than having shaky cam movie
roganovic18 December 2018
Brain staibilze vision. You dont have shaky vision if you are normal. No need to shake camera when someone run . I mean so low budget. Even if u are in car and offroading you dont get those shakes like movie presented. Idiotic
Perfectly enjoyable
hcasteve22 June 2019
I'm not always one to go by reviews and I'm glad I didn't with this film. I found really enjoyable, its not perfect but interesting. This will be one that I'll be adding to my DVD shelf. Its nice to see sly Stallone back in action again
Why would A-listers agree to a 5th-grader written script?
Top_Dawg_Critic15 December 2018
I get that amateur writers need to start somewhere, but writer Mike Maples needed to partner up with a seasoned screenwriter for his 2nd-ever film - especially when casting big names, instead of putting Stallone and Modine thru this garbage. The premise of this story did have a chance, but the writing killed it, and very disappointingly so, to say the least.
Some scenes where outrageously ridiculous and riddled with plot issues. Even some of the dialogue seemed to be written by a 5th grader. I feel bad for Stallone and Modine, I hope they got paid well, as this will not show well on their resumes.
Then there was that constant overbearing and out of place annoying score... who agreed to that? Had the score been more appropriate (and not so loud and more absent), the film would have showed much better.
The directing was also nothing to write home about; the camera work was OK in most of the film, but the shaky migraines and some pan shots and zooms were annoying, but I guess director Brian Miller could only do so much with the screenplay he was handed. I also feel he could've directed his cast better, and edited/cut many of the flaws this film had.
A very generous 6/10 from me, mainly for the story's premise, and because Stallone and Modine carried this film from being a total flop.
Some scenes where outrageously ridiculous and riddled with plot issues. Even some of the dialogue seemed to be written by a 5th grader. I feel bad for Stallone and Modine, I hope they got paid well, as this will not show well on their resumes.
Then there was that constant overbearing and out of place annoying score... who agreed to that? Had the score been more appropriate (and not so loud and more absent), the film would have showed much better.
The directing was also nothing to write home about; the camera work was OK in most of the film, but the shaky migraines and some pan shots and zooms were annoying, but I guess director Brian Miller could only do so much with the screenplay he was handed. I also feel he could've directed his cast better, and edited/cut many of the flaws this film had.
A very generous 6/10 from me, mainly for the story's premise, and because Stallone and Modine carried this film from being a total flop.
Terrible
Plazeebo15 December 2018
Brian Miller has directed quite a few films, but none of them ever scored above 6 on IMDB. Why Stallone would agree to star in a film he directs is beyond me. It's absolutely terrible.
The script is horrible. The cinematography is awful. The acting is stiff. The music is just random notes.
The script is horrible. The cinematography is awful. The acting is stiff. The music is just random notes.
Beyond terrible (WARNING BLOW BY BLOW ACCOUNT / SPOILERS
lopezpatricia-0613914 April 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Starts off with the bad guys meeting to share the loot, invariably ends up in a massive shoot out. Where one survives. He gets amnesia for 7 years before he's busted out the nut house by what turns out to be his wife and 2 sons with a miraculous serum to restore his memories. Staggering around with a headache that's contagious to viewers, the bent cops arrive and spend the last 25 mins in another shootout at the cement factory. Stallone in the end says off you go no charges and take the money with you, I'll clear this up.
Memories can be a problem
johnc214125 May 2019
I was expecting more Stallone in this kind of low budget action drama but alas It's more Matthew Modine as a bank robber who lost his memory and there are several people out to find where he hid 20 million dollars. And this was 7 years ago and still Modine is still not remembering. So along comes FBI agent played by Christopher McDonald wanting answers working with cop Stallone. It's a basic story with some surprises.Its not worthy of the one star reviews. But everyone is there own critic, I gave it 5 out of 10 because I thought it was decent but not great. Stallones latest since creed 2. Funny because a few years ago he announced retirement. Ahem a final Rambo movie? Expendables 4? Not this old dog. I expect Stallone will be in a few more movies maybe till he's 100 . Rocky at the retirement home.Teaching boxing ? Just a thought.
Bland
mikesnppr14 December 2018
Pretty generic plot with no real surprises, nothing we haven't seen many times before and even though the runtime is pretty short, less than 1h30m, nothing very interesting or engaging is really happening most of the time. The bulk of the interesting action happens in the first 10 minutes and then the last 10 minutes the rest simply felt like a padding.
I am surprised Stallone chose to appear in this.
I'm forcing these 5 stars
xbrunerohd19 December 2018
If you don't have anything else to do this may be an option. Gunshot scenes were weird, guys missing dozens of shots, pretty generic.
What was that Sykes character all about?There were few scenes with him and most of them are irrelevant or without depth. Actually if I look to all the other characters, there's no depth, nothing. Oh, and the end of the movie was also pretty generic, I've seen some people that said the ending was good, really??
Needs more Stallone
BandSAboutMovies30 August 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Twenty years after a botched robbery, three grifters kidnap an amnesia patient to jog his memory and find the long-lost money. It's directed by Brian A. Miller, who has also been behind several direct to video Bruce Willis vehicles like Vice, The Prince and Reprisal.
After suffering a brain injury from that aforementioned heist, MacDonald (Matthew Modine) has spent seven years suffering from amnesia in a prison psychiatric ward. Then, a fellow inmate and the prison doctor (Ryan Guzman, Rio from the abortive Jem and the Holograms movie and Meadow Williams, Apollo 13) break him out and inject him with a drug that gives him back his old mind. Now, in order to get back the money, MacDonald must escape Detective Sykes (Sylvester Stallone in a glorified cameo), FBI agent Franks (Christopher McDonald, who I always refer to as Shooter McGavin) and the side effects of the drug.
If you're heading into this expecting a Stallone cop thriller, perhaps you should just watch Cobra or Nighthawks.
After suffering a brain injury from that aforementioned heist, MacDonald (Matthew Modine) has spent seven years suffering from amnesia in a prison psychiatric ward. Then, a fellow inmate and the prison doctor (Ryan Guzman, Rio from the abortive Jem and the Holograms movie and Meadow Williams, Apollo 13) break him out and inject him with a drug that gives him back his old mind. Now, in order to get back the money, MacDonald must escape Detective Sykes (Sylvester Stallone in a glorified cameo), FBI agent Franks (Christopher McDonald, who I always refer to as Shooter McGavin) and the side effects of the drug.
If you're heading into this expecting a Stallone cop thriller, perhaps you should just watch Cobra or Nighthawks.
Dreadful
GladtobeGrey24 January 2020
I see there isn't a 'goofs' section for this movie - because there are too many to list maybe? And, please, I know mandatory retirement is not a requirement in most professions in the USA, but a 72-year-old cop (Stallone)? Do me a favour.
Awful
nebk16 December 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Most of the other reviews have said this but it needs to be reiterated: this movie is awful. It has a weak story, terrible dialogue and is badly directed with an unexceptional and cheap sounding music score.
The main premise is that a bank robber (Modine) who was shot in the head is the only one who knows where 15 million dollars from a bank robbery is hiden after his two partners were doble crossed and killed. Seven years after the heist, he is sprung from a prison mental hospital by his two sons who give him an injection that helps him retreive his memories in order to find the cash. There is a shoot out with the corrupt feds who were behind the robbery and the heroic local cop (Stallone) takes them all out. Then he lets the robber leave with the money and the surviving members of his family because apparently seven years in the mental hospital was enough punishment for the robber. After all he was doing it all for his family.
The ammount of plot-holes in this movie are unbelievable. Why did the corrupt feds shoot the robbers and not find out where the money is first? How is it that one of the sons of the surviving robber managed to get a job in the prison hospital without anyone knowing? How did the other son impersonate a patient in order to help the escape. Where did they get the miracle memory retrieving drug? Why do the bad guys all go down and presumably die when Stallone shoots them in their bulletproof vests? Why does everyone have selective hearing when they conveniently don't hear approaching cars or shouting? And there are so many more but I'm getting bored of remembering a movie i finished watching 15 minutes ago. That's how memorable it is.
Overall the characters are so thin they might as well be see through and the movie is dumb with a weak story, even weaker dialogue and completely wastes the actors it has. Avoid it at all costs.
The main premise is that a bank robber (Modine) who was shot in the head is the only one who knows where 15 million dollars from a bank robbery is hiden after his two partners were doble crossed and killed. Seven years after the heist, he is sprung from a prison mental hospital by his two sons who give him an injection that helps him retreive his memories in order to find the cash. There is a shoot out with the corrupt feds who were behind the robbery and the heroic local cop (Stallone) takes them all out. Then he lets the robber leave with the money and the surviving members of his family because apparently seven years in the mental hospital was enough punishment for the robber. After all he was doing it all for his family.
The ammount of plot-holes in this movie are unbelievable. Why did the corrupt feds shoot the robbers and not find out where the money is first? How is it that one of the sons of the surviving robber managed to get a job in the prison hospital without anyone knowing? How did the other son impersonate a patient in order to help the escape. Where did they get the miracle memory retrieving drug? Why do the bad guys all go down and presumably die when Stallone shoots them in their bulletproof vests? Why does everyone have selective hearing when they conveniently don't hear approaching cars or shouting? And there are so many more but I'm getting bored of remembering a movie i finished watching 15 minutes ago. That's how memorable it is.
Overall the characters are so thin they might as well be see through and the movie is dumb with a weak story, even weaker dialogue and completely wastes the actors it has. Avoid it at all costs.
Top shelf
gsps31113 May 2023
I'm not sure why people are giving this above average movie the negative reviews. This movie grabbed my attention from the start. The acting by the top level actors is great. This movie was not a movie that was advertised well. Luckily I stumbled upon this gem of a movie. I watched this movie twice. I plan on watching it again tomorrow morning. Sylvester. Stallone is the best part of this movie by leaps and bounds Matthew Modine's performance is underrated. This is Matthew's second best performance in my opinion, second to. Vision Quest. I would love to see more roles like this for both of the lead characters. Give this movie a chance.
I enjoyed it.
jamesdwatsonsr29 June 2019
I watched it without looking it up on here. I enjoyed it. I came here to look at trivia for the movie and am shocked at everyone hating it. I did think there were small issues (shooting too many times before reloading, people wearing vests killed, etc), but I found the plot enjoyed and the acting good. I've liked Matthew Modine since Full Metal Jacket.
Should go straight to the bargain bin box
horton-783676 January 2019
good for sleeping
dendot15 June 2019
What we've come to expect from Plannet Hollywood
gdeangel22 May 2019
It would take all your fingers and toes to count the action films starring Bruce Willis and Ah-nold in the mass-video / mass-streaming ere that seriously had absolutely no business getting made. Now, with this sad excuse for a film, Sly tosses his hat into the ring of the paycheck-whoring of action star credentials by playing a cop who sort-of lingers around as a plot facilitator for 80 minutes and then plays Rambo with a handgun for the last 10 minutes.
If you can imagine a mash up of "Reservoir Dogs" (without the flashbacks and character development, and it sucked), "A Simple Plan" (with the ethical conundrums reduced to three lines of easily missed dialogue), peppered together with a grab bad of cliche "local cops good; FBI bad" plot twists (not very twisty), and on top of that, there is the mind-enhancing drug angle (although if you were expected "Limitless", don't. Think "The Jacket" done with over-the-top shaky-cam and the director basically telling Mathew Modine, "Grab your head and scream like your in pain", and rather than suspenseful pacing and the tense overtones of a mad scientist in a sanitarium, expect three minor characters who basically want loot.)
Together the minor characters and Mr. "My Brain Hurts" Modine visit three locations from the past to trigger memories. We're not talking about places with any action, or places where anything mysterious or particularly captivating gets revealed. Think of an empty house or a vacant lot, jazzed up with lots of shaky-cam. And every time, the catalyst for building tension in the story is the same -- someone shows up and asks what they are doing there. Wow. What an action movie.
The film sandwiches it's "action" between two over-the-top shoot out's that are completely ridiculous. I mean laughable. The kind of shootouts where there's a 10 minute fire-fight, and when it's over, rather than collect the guy who knows where the money is stashed (who, by the way, they've been shooting to kill), the bad guy suddenly says, "We've got to get out of here", and they just leave. That bad. But the most ridiculous thing is Sly's hair. I don't know whether to long for the days of convention spray-on hair darkening effects, or call for the resurrection of Sean Connery's toupe, but Stallone's hair looks like it was photo-shopped by a 9-year-old using an iPad. I'm mildly suspicious they also tried to photoshop a crease down the middle of Mathew Modine's forehead. That would be odd. Maybe the director thought it added more realism to his perennial scene: my head hurts!
If you can imagine a mash up of "Reservoir Dogs" (without the flashbacks and character development, and it sucked), "A Simple Plan" (with the ethical conundrums reduced to three lines of easily missed dialogue), peppered together with a grab bad of cliche "local cops good; FBI bad" plot twists (not very twisty), and on top of that, there is the mind-enhancing drug angle (although if you were expected "Limitless", don't. Think "The Jacket" done with over-the-top shaky-cam and the director basically telling Mathew Modine, "Grab your head and scream like your in pain", and rather than suspenseful pacing and the tense overtones of a mad scientist in a sanitarium, expect three minor characters who basically want loot.)
Together the minor characters and Mr. "My Brain Hurts" Modine visit three locations from the past to trigger memories. We're not talking about places with any action, or places where anything mysterious or particularly captivating gets revealed. Think of an empty house or a vacant lot, jazzed up with lots of shaky-cam. And every time, the catalyst for building tension in the story is the same -- someone shows up and asks what they are doing there. Wow. What an action movie.
The film sandwiches it's "action" between two over-the-top shoot out's that are completely ridiculous. I mean laughable. The kind of shootouts where there's a 10 minute fire-fight, and when it's over, rather than collect the guy who knows where the money is stashed (who, by the way, they've been shooting to kill), the bad guy suddenly says, "We've got to get out of here", and they just leave. That bad. But the most ridiculous thing is Sly's hair. I don't know whether to long for the days of convention spray-on hair darkening effects, or call for the resurrection of Sean Connery's toupe, but Stallone's hair looks like it was photo-shopped by a 9-year-old using an iPad. I'm mildly suspicious they also tried to photoshop a crease down the middle of Mathew Modine's forehead. That would be odd. Maybe the director thought it added more realism to his perennial scene: my head hurts!
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