The trailer for the latest heist film ‘Echo Boomers’ featuring Alex Pettyfer, Patrick Schwarznegger and Michael Shannon has dropped and it looks …meh. Don’t get me wrong, Micheal Shannon is a wizard in the few scenes he appears and I can happily watch the movie just to see him in character, but the trailer looks lacklustre and seems like a repetition of it’s genre and not a genuine original.
The trailer kicks off with several news reports of the financial crisis, the current generation of millennials being unable to hold a job, young adults unable to pay back their debts, etc. serving as a vague ‘legitimate reason’ for our new ’good guys’ to start stealing. This scene is quickly followed by college grad Lance Zutterland (Patrick Schwarznegger) behind bars and him telling his story to a woman (his attorney, probably, or a cop/agent) about how he got there.
We then go through a montage of how his ‘friend’ tricks him into joining a gang, who rob the houses of random rich people and vandalize their homes after they are done, for fun. After the montage ends, the trailer cuts to their ‘safehouse’. Alex Pettyfer’s character is shown as the leader of the group, while Micheal Shannon’s character acts as their dealer/head of operations. Then cue scene – party, booze and women; you know, the ‘reward’ after a ‘good-bad job’ . We get scenes of Pettyfer’s character explaining to Zutterberg, why they were doing a good thing and then Shannon’s character threatens the rest of the gang that he will leave the group if they don’t stop messing around. So far same old, same old. Another montage quickly follows and then an ominous ‘one-liner’ is said by Pettyfer and then ‘Echo Boomer’ comes out in neon white. That’s probably the only cool part in the trailer in my opinion.
Shanon plays an age-old character, but he is brilliant in this beaten and repeated role while adding his own subtle nuances. Pettyfer is not shying away from his ‘bad-boy’ roles and hopefully for him this film won’t be a complete dud like his past few. The thing is after seeing films like ‘Point Break’, ‘Runner Runner’, ‘Pain & Gain’ among many others, the novelty of a ‘decent’ guy sinking into the world of crime due to a charismatic leader or coercion (take your pick) has worn off.
Of course, there have been surprise hits in the genre before. ‘Baby Driver’, ‘Town’ and ‘Training Day’ have all been brilliant (I would also say ‘The Departed’, but with a stellar cast and the director, no one was surprised by the film’s success). But all those movies had something to capture our attention and not give us a predictable ending (or at least kept us satisfied till the very end). For the actors’ and the crew’s sake, we sincerely hope this movie can provide plot twists, genre changes or add subtle nuances at the very least to keep this feature film watchable.
The film is expected to release in theaters on November 13th while also expected to be available for Video On Demand.
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