The Tax Collector

I like David Ayer. Based on interviews and his social media postings, seems like a cool guy. As a filmmaker, he's hit or miss ranging from some really solid action-thrillers like U-571, End of Watch and Fury to the poorly made flicks such as Sabotage (though has its moments) and Suicide Squad (which I've soured on over the years).

His latest, the second one straight-to-streaming following Bright, is The Tax Collector, seemingly aspiring to be some sort of modern day Godfather. The editing here is rather bad, acting was mixed with Shia LaBeouf shining brightest to the point I wish the movie was about his character while Bobby Soto has some okay scenes but in the lead, never quite works. And the writing, also by Ayer, was shoddy (shows Tra...

The Tax Collector is the second-best David Ayer-directed film (the best remains End of Watch), but it's far from the best David Ayers-penned movie though to be fair, that includes Training Day and Dark Blue, as well as the aforementioned End of Watch.

The script can be nicely subtle, especially when it comes to the character of Creeper (Shia LaBeouf putting his natural weirdness to good use); he's always impeccably dressed in a suit and tie, but his cauliflower ears are a dead giveaway here's someone who can take punishment as well as dish it out.

This is great stuff, but at some point you gotta put your money where your mouth is, and that's where the character shortchange us. Much is made of how Creeper has maimed, tortured, and mu...