Crook (2013) Directed by Adrian Langley

Maybe this isn't the worst modern, low-budget, crime thriller that I have ever seen but that isn't saying all that much of course.

I can see what this movie was trying to do but it was a bit of a too ambitious project for director and writer Adrian Langley. Basically it's trying to be a crime movie in the vein of genre movies like "The Departed" but it neither has the budget or talents involved to pull things off.

The movie is more messy and annoying than tense or engaging really. It's mostly because the movie is trying to follow a bit too many different character, with each their own stories. The different stories don't always seem to be connected well enough to each other and it definitely feels like this movie should have cut 2 or 3 storyline and eliminated a handful of characters from its story. It just feels too random- and often needlessly convoluted all. And since the movie is following too many characters, none of the characters ever get fully developed neither. It's hard to care for any of the characters in this movie and you most likely won't feel involved with their stories and emotions.

It makes the movie as a whole a pretty flat and bland, even though the movie never becomes a truly terrible one as well.

The movie has a decent enough look and style to it but at the same time it's still a bit too slick looking all. At times the movie is trying to be a raw and gritty, straightforward, crime movie but the visual style of the movie doesn't always suit this approach. Still, it makes the movie a perfectly watchable one. The look of the movie ensures that this movie is always looking like a good and interesting one, even when there isn't an awful lot of good or interesting happening in the actual story of it.

It's also true that the movie is trying a bit too hard to be an overly violent crime movie at times. Some of the violence feels too exaggerated and not really in tune with the story of the movie. Most of the violence really wasn't needed and it feels just too forced to ever really work out effectively enough.

All in all, there definitely are some worse genre movies you can watch but that's not saying as well that this one is well worth your time.

5/10