End of the Road

Year 17, Day 130 - 5/10/25 - Movie #5,022 - MOTHER'S DAY FILM #3

BEFORE:  Beau Bridges carries over from "Norma Rae". And I just realized that I've seen Sally Field romantically involved with BOTH Bridges brothers this year, Jeff in "Kiss Me Goodbye" and "Stay Hungry" and Beau in "Norma Rae". 

I've got links to get me to the end of May now, and I've scheduled THREE Marvel movies for this month, because if I'm not watching Marvel movies, then what the hell am I doing?  Here's the path: Queen Latifah, Dakota Fanning, Erica Cho, Rhys Ifans, Tom Hardy (again), Timothy Olyphant, Channing Tatum, Chris Pratt AND Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan. That should give you some idea where I'm heading, assuming that Disney starts streaming "Captain America: Brave New World" around Memorial Day, that would be nice. If they don't, then I'll have to come up with a work-around. Anyway, I figure that Sebastian Stan and Florence Pugh have both made so many movies lately that I should be able to come up with a plan to get to Father's Day in 15 steps or under. If not, then what the hell am I doing?

THE PLOT: A cross-country road trip becomes a highway to hell for Brenda and her family. Alone in the New Mexico desert, they have to fight for their lives when they become the targets of a mysterious killer.

AFTER: OK, fine, so it's not your typical Mother's Day film, which in years past has been movies like "Secrets & Lies" or "Lovely & Amazing", last year at this time I was watching "Because I Said So" and "Georgia Rule", which were kind of like rom-coms only Moms tried to tell their daughters who to date. So, they were Mom-coms?  Anyway, no Mom-coms this year, though I have a few on my list, I couldn't quite get THERE, but I could get HERE. When I get back from North Carolina I'll try to see what I can do for Fathers Day, I've got a mini-chain of 4 films that would be perfect, but the trick is linking right to that chain (from either end) which is a bit like threading a needle. Got a lot of Eddie Murphy on my list, I'd be willing to knock them off, even if that means watching "Daddy Day Care". But we'll see - there's a back-up mini-chain of 2 films if I can't make the other one work.  

But Brenda, the mother character is the lead here, as she and her failure-pile brother drive her 2 kids from California to start a new life in Texas, after the death of her husband. We get that the family has been hurting for money due to the medical bills from her husband's illness, and probably funeral costs on top of that. I guess you just can't make things work on a nurse's salary these days, we should all probably try to do something about that. I guess they were renting because they don't seem to have any money from the sale of the house - this is all background explanation for why Brenda's brother, Reggie, sees fit to steal a bag full of money that he finds in the motel room next door, after someone gets shot there. (Brenda uses her nursing skills to try and save him, but it's no use - he has to die so the plot can move forward.)

The local sheriff is concerned that the family was allowed to continue driving after questioning, he wants them to drive back, because he thinks they might be in danger from the cartel. Brenda doesn't see the need, until she starts getting phone calls from someone with a disguised voice, demanding the return of what was stolen. Reggie has to come clean about stealing the bag, at which point Brenda decides to leave the bag in the closet of another hotel, and tell the mysterious caller where it is. Sure, what could POSSIBLY go wrong with that plan?  The mystery caller isn't the type of guy to go searching hotel rooms, so instead he kidnaps Brenda's son, Cam, and makes her go back for the money.  

Meanwhile, the sheriff, Captain Hammers, catches up with the rest of the family and offers to keep them safe at his ranch until Brenda returns, come on, his sweet old wife offers to cook them dinner while they wait, who could say no to that?  Well, it's not TOO hard to see the twist coming here, because come on, there's only one reason for someone in a movie to disguise their voice. Hey, at least I figured it out early tonight, but that meant there really weren't any surprises coming, I just had a long wait for a proper resolution, and it's a pretty short movie. 

The opening conflict, where a couple of redneck racist teens bully the family on the highway, got resolved when Brenda played the subservient role and apologized for her daughter's behavior at the rest stop, which was probably the best way to handle things, not escalate the situation like Reggie would have done, because that meant keeping her kids safe. But then the rest of the film preaches the opposite lesson, which is that violence is OK and sometimes necessary when you need to protect your family, Mixed messages, that's all I'm saying, it seems we can't be consistent about how black people are supposed to defy authority and stand up in the face of adversity. And it's OK to steal drug money if the dealers are dead?  I'm not sure about that one. 

Directed by Millicent Shelton

Also starring Queen Latifah (last seen in "Hustle"), Ludacris (last seen in "Gamer"), Mychala Lee, Shaun Dixon, Frances Lee McCain (last seen in "Albert Brooks: Defending My Life"), Jesse Luken (last seen in "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"), Tabatha Shaun, Jasper Keen, Micah McNeil (last seen in "Vengeance"), Rio Alexander (ditto), Paul Blott, Efrain Villa (last seen in "The Kid"), Rachel Michaela, Keith Jardine (last seen in "Crank: High Voltage"), Tim Stafford, Travis Hammer (last seen in "Frank"), James Moontasri (last seen in "The Beekeeper"), Michael Anthony (last seen in "Secret Headquarters"), Phuong Kubacki (last seen in "The Bikeriders"), Aaron Valentine, Hyla Rayne Fontenot, James David Wilkinson, Dawn Lura, Algin Mendez, Dwight Jones, Michael Shawn Lemert

RATING: 5 out of 10 road flares