I watched Dragged Across Concrete last night with the missus. It was 2 hours 39 minutes long but the slow burn crime thriller was very satisfying. I loved the storytelling and the characters in the movie. And my favorite character in the movie doesn't even have a name.
Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn play two dirty cops in this B movie that somehow manages to subvert the genre. Instead of non-stop violence, you are treated to long stretches of dialogue and waiting.
In one scene, you watch Vince Vaughn's character Lurasetti slowly eating his sandwich in a stakeout, and Gibson's character Ridgeman snarls, "A single red ant could have eaten it faster.” I laughed out loud at that silly moment.
But somehow the slow burn works and you are drawn into the story as it slowly unfolds, punctuated with moments of shocking violence.
The other amazing thing is how quickly director/writer S. Craig Zahler makes you feel for characters who are introduced out of nowhere, and who get sucked into the vortex of the criminal underbelly.
I didn't even realize 159 minutes had gone by until we left the theatre (the wife and I were the ONLY ones in the preview hall, it was like our own cinema), and then all the stores in Lido were closed.
It is to watch something clever like this instead of the usual blockbuster stuff we see all the time. Recommended if you like old school crime movies.
