r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • 7d ago
Official Discussion Official Discussion - Animals (2026) [SPOILERS] Spoiler
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Animals (2026)
Summary
When their son is kidnapped, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate and his wife are forced into a desperate race to raise the ransom. As they make increasingly extreme choices, they become entangled in a web of deception and expose dark secrets that threaten their family and the candidate’s political future.
Director
Ben Affleck
Writer
Connor O. McIntyre, Billy Ray, Ben Affleck
Cast
- Ben Affleck
- Kerry Washington
- Gillian Anderson
- Steven Yeun
- Adriana Paz
- Luis Gerardo Méndez
- Christopher Woodley
Rotten Tomatoes: 39%
Metacritic: 33
VOD / Release
October 9, 2026 (Theatrical and Netflix)
Trailer
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u/Michaewwwwl 7d ago
Okay but when the kid catapulted off the wagon across the canal into afflecks arms…that shit was so off and so bad it took me out of the movie. Crazy how someone who has directed great action in the past can let that slide.
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u/Smart_Freedom_8155 7d ago edited 6d ago
Yeah, it was sorta watchable until this precise moment.
And then Gillian Anderson's character (the ultra-experienced, cold and calculating cynic) rushes out into the middle of all the shooting and bodies, before the "smoke" even clears, to pick them up. Gets shot.
Unlike the dad, the guy you'd expect to rush out and get shot, but who actually waited for the perfect moment for the 3rd thug to make himself known, before shooting him from 200 yards away (how did he know there wasn't a fourth badguy in the wings?)
And then they spent like 10 minutes on Ben Affleck being smug about his cover-up story.
But it all started with the kid-a-pult there.
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u/hidelyhokie 7d ago
That was easily the worst part of a bad movie. Outrageously outlandishly literally laughably bad.
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u/DiamondsAndApes 6d ago
Literally came to this discussion looking for this comment. How TF do the producers watch that back and not say “this looks so fucking stupid and corny that we have to shoot this or figure out how to cut it and do something else here” - and don’t get me started on how that even gets written into the script in the first place 😭
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u/SolenoidSoldier 4d ago
That "slope" was hilarious. They try to make it look dangerously steep, but you can see in some scenes that they're just moving down part of a canal that goes from a wall to a very easy-to-navigate angle. Ben Affleck chooses to go down one of the more steeper parts rather than walk 30 feet over to where it's much easier.
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u/FoxyGrandpa867 7d ago
I actually liked it until it turns out they didn’t kidnap his son and the movie just becomes a bad remake of High and Low.
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u/hagamablabla 7d ago edited 3d ago
When you copy someone's homework but get too lazy to even finish copying it.
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u/CreepyClown 6d ago
So weird how much of it they ripped off. Apparently Affleck said he’s never even see High and Low but they supposedly suspended production of this when they found out about Denzel’s remake
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u/Babeasaur47 7d ago
Literally zero answers. Who was this network that kidnapped the kids and why, who was Gillian Anderson’s character, how does a campaign manager know the number to a hit woman that costs millions… and most importantly, what happened to Ron?
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u/dont_worry_im_here 7d ago
From the trailers, I thought this was going to be a mystery full of twists, back-stabbings, espionage, etc...
It was just a straight, down the barrel, hunk of shit.
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u/thedrivingcat 5d ago
It makes the last Affleck movie, The Rip, seem like a masterpiece and that film was just a solid 7.
Maybe it's all Damon.
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u/Head_Bent_Over 5d ago
Funny enough it was supposed to be Matt in the lead role, but he had scheduling conflicts.
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u/paulyporu 2d ago
Yep, I thought campaign manager Glen had organised the whole fake kidnap to bump up the Hispanic votes or prehaps Gillian Anderson was the Iluminati making sure they had some leverage on the independant in case he won, but no. Just a boring 'baddie' kidnaps kid film.
Also, they could have lowered a rope with a hook to pick up the bag of cash after lowering the boy down. No need to get into the river and Ben and Kid would have a hell of a time getting after them.
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u/hidelyhokie 7d ago
The why was shown. Affleck did something with his legal firm regarding polluters, which put undue burden on some businesses to prove they weren't polluting. If they couldn't afford it they weren't allowed to do business. This guys business went under cause of it.
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u/IAM_deleted_AMA 6d ago
I can forgive all of that except the Ron plot. It made zero sense to add it, it leads to nowhere and it’s not even fleshed out enough. Remove it and you actually get a better movie, I’m baffled by the decision to keep that in.
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u/YoRt3m 5d ago
While this movie was horrible in many aspects, I can think of a few reason for the Ron plot
- A line was said in the movie by the wife I think, that when these things happen, people show what really important to them, what's dearest of all. the fact that she gave up on Ron means she realized that it's Ben and son.
- For a moment there a viewer could think that Ron is behind this, with her (getting the money and run away) or without her (using her to get inside information). he even texted her "any update?" as if this could give him the information of Ben's real intentions regarding the ransom.
It was bad, but explainable.
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u/Tealoveroni 5d ago
I atleast hoped that Ron engineered the kidnapping so him and Abby can go live in luxury.
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u/Waste_Body9152 4d ago
Exactly! How does this random campaign manager know someone like her??? She was def the most interesting character and we find out nothing about her. And where did they hide all the bodies? Supposedly only the sniper was found dead.
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u/Emotional-Dream526 3d ago
I think they burned them in the car in the middle of the street in the bad neighborhood
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u/crozly 3d ago
I thought there would be some twist where the campaign manager staged it all to boost his chances of becoming mayor as he was so quick to just go “I know a lady”. Also when she first arrives, they give each other a look like they are in cahoots. But no, nothing at all, just a crap ending with no explanations to anything!
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u/rachet-ex 18h ago
And won't associates of Gillian A come looking for her and her (or their) money?
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u/mvgreene 7d ago
Kurosawa = High and Low
Lee = Highest 2 Lowest
Affleck = Animals
With Lee’s remake I felt like it was completely mis-cast. Washington was way too old for his role (no amount of hair dye was going to change that he doesn’t play 50s anymore). And A$AP’s performance was just horrible and distracting. And then, the score in a couple places completely pulled me out and was distracting.
With Affleck’s remake, to me, the most distracting moment was when I realized it WAS a remake, but this was never promoted. At the very least, say you are paying homage to Kurosawa. The b-story with Kerry Washington’s side piece just went nowhere and ended in a text message “I’m sorry”. Having the side piece involved in the kidnapping would have been a good twist or even better, having his campaign manager involved. And how the hell did the kid’s dad just magically show up at the end and save the day - REALLY???
It’s crazy how Hollywood continues to just do remakes, but now, they don’t even bother calling them remakes.
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u/DaKind28 6d ago
I thought the campaign manager was definitely gonna be involved. When Gillian Anderson character showed up, he made the slightest of smirks. Which made me think it was a setup. Was waiting for the twist reveal. Never came and was just a crappy movie.
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u/nyr00nyg 6d ago
I bursted out laughing when the kid in the cart flies down the hill and bounces directly into ben affleck’s arms
😂 🤣
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u/mklotuuus 6d ago
It was even funnier how Affleck’s fall to get to the chair was made or edited out like its some kind of big dangerous stunt lol. But i realized they did that because theyre going to deliver the kid via the cart.
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u/dootytootybooty 6d ago
That scene kinda made up for wasting my time with this movie. It was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a minute.
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u/dani3po 7d ago
As with some of her more recent projects, the only redeeming feature of this movie is Gillian Anderson.
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u/Adept_Push 5d ago
Came here WHILE WATCHING to say this. She’s stellar.
I was shocked/impressed to see Affleck bust out Spanish but JFC this movie is bad.
And now I’m reading this thread about BA’s AI company? What the fuck.
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u/Appropriate_List_819 7d ago
Bafflingly bad. Every scene uses the same camera angles as the characters stand and deliver their lines. The lighting looks like 90% of TV shows. The editing is erratic. If you told me they filmed this movie in 3 days I would believe you. When the kidnapper first calls there is one shot that they is an interesting oner that lasts a few minutes but even that is poorly acted. As I'm typing this I realize this is probably a movie for people who aren't really paying attention to the TV.
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u/Will-Of-D-3D2Y 6d ago
I am convinced 100% that this movie is a test case for Affleck's AI company that Netflix bought for $500 million. The movie largely takes place in one location to keep the budget low while the climax inexplicably features multiple bizarre "stunts" that look straight out of a commercial:
Affleck sleigh riding the money bag down the slope with a nonsensical slow motion shot of him landing into a puddle of water.
Gillian Anderson driving the car through the water that they showed from like four different angles in ten seconds time.
The insane moment of the kid in the cart rolling down the slope and crashing with the kid flying into Affleck's arms.
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u/OneKatzie 7d ago
I’ve watched movie credits for years and don’t remember ever seeing a broad “CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY” heading like this. It includes a “Machine Learning & Research” group. The credit frame I saw doesn’t name InterPositive. Affleck has said AI was used on Animals in post-production. TheWrap reports InterPositive employees worked on the film and quotes him describing lighting or optics adjustments and VFX removals: https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/ben-affleck-interview-animals-netflix/
Has anyone noticed a specific shot that might fit those tasks? Share the timestamp and what you noticed. I’m curious what can be substantiated, not assuming whole scenes were AI-generated.
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u/Will-Of-D-3D2Y 6d ago
I can genuinely believe he made this movie just as an advertisement of his AI company to Netflix.
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u/SolenoidSoldier 4d ago
The kid flying out of the wagon has to be AI.
Aside from that, I'm also compelled to think that the script was AI as well, especially the last 10 minutes of Ben Affleck's character just narrating.
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u/supermanforhire 1d ago
I thought during the commercial early on with Ben standing in the fire wreckage it looked like AI.
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u/Raptors1007 6d ago
I know a lot of people hate it and im not discrediting anything they said this movie is bad if you’re looking for something good to watch but I liked it haha. Let me explain.
Its the long weekend here in Canada for thanksgiving and im super sick, its the perfect movie to put on to keep you just entertained enough without you exerting any mental fortitude trying to keep up. I know it sounds like a diss, maybe it is, but when you're dying sick sometimes you just wanna watch trash and this was a solid movie in that regard.
It was a nice watch at home, but man the way the child lept into Afflecks arms what the hell😂😂
Also i was expecting the kidnappers for one of them to be either connected to Affleck or Washington.
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u/xxbearillaxx 5d ago
I call this genre of movie, "airplane movies" because I can fall asleep at nearly any point, or eat a snack and day dream, and I don't really miss anything from the movie. Great movie for a plane.
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u/phl_fc 1d ago
This week my wife was watching this movie 20 minutes at a time during her lunch break at work. Some days I've joined her, some days not. It's like the perfect kind of story if that's the only way you can watch a movie. The plot doesn't matter at all, just taking in 10 minutes of drama that you don't actually care about while eating lunch and talking about how work's going.
It's exactly why Netflix says they're designing movies for people who don't pay attention to a full 2 hour movie.
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u/Fantastic-Pickle-578 5d ago
That last part. No explanation or tie to Scully’s character or the boyfriend? Am I dumb and just missed it?
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u/Raptors1007 5d ago
Same here man i thought the dude being chased in the field right above their house was the cheater lol but no explanation whatsoever
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u/ItsDanimal 5d ago
the guy the gardener chased was one of the henchmen, main kidnapper confirmed it.
no explanation on who thr kidnapper was is disappointing. the secret mob organization that got everything right said it would be 2 guys, but the ri g leader was able to outsmart them, and he is just a rando?
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u/Raptors1007 5d ago
Yeah just a very strange way of setting it up, introducing characters from both spouses side and then having it seem like a whodunit ...weirdly written just some exposition of something to do with business and lawyers apparently thats enough to want to kidnap Afflecks kid lmao or so called kid
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u/ItsDanimal 5d ago edited 4d ago
Also, the fear of going to the police. Them worrying about the image of not going to the police when it was their own son. "We didnt go to the cops because we were terrified and thought this was serious. When we realized the kidnapper had the wrong kid, we understood that this guy was probably an amateur and better to get the police involved."
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u/badlisten3r 7d ago
This was genuinely so bad. My god. Lazy ass retelling of High and Low but make it terrible. Multiple scenes made me laugh out loud that were absolutely not intentional. The ending was the corniest, most self serving, borderline racist endings I’ve seen in a long time. Long gone are the days of The Town and Argo. Also, does the movie just flat out not reveal the motivations of the villains at all or did I miss a bad piece of writing? 1.5/10
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u/CaptainGooseTrain 4h ago
Also how did they just take the money? You don’t think someone’s gonna come looking for $7M cash??
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u/PowSuperMum 7d ago
I think this is the movie that's going to make me cancel Netflix. What the fuck am I paying for?
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u/LastPirateAlive 7d ago edited 7d ago
You're not gonna cancel. You're gonna keep it and make this comment with no follow-through. A fool and his money are soon parted.
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u/badlisten3r 7d ago
“No balls you won’t!” Ass comment lmao
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u/blacksalmon2189 7d ago
Cause they wont lmfao the price hike, password sharing and ads didnt stop them you think one bad affleck film will
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u/amegaproxy 4d ago
I got rid of it at the last price rise. Amazon prime for deliveries and disney+ free with a bank account is totally fine.
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u/OutrageousNightcall 6d ago
I canceled Netflix, Amazon prime, Spotify, YouTube premium…it’s freeing and much more money in my pockets. We don’t really need any of that shit, it’s just meant to keep us distracted from the the fact that this world is a giant mall filled with people who are completely empty inside
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u/Odium4 5d ago
Well damn brother what do you enjoy 😂
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u/Valuable-Sundae-9105 5d ago
bro doesn't know piracy is a thing
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u/jimmymcjim 3d ago
pirating slop is better than paying for it but its still slop aint it
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u/Valuable-Sundae-9105 3d ago
yup, but if you are for some reason compelled to engage with slop, don't pay for it
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u/onion_head1 6d ago
You are so right. I really hope more people do this - it's terrible if it's more from a place of financial insecurity, but still it sends a message.
Little bits of money leaving your account every month, and what value do you even get for it? Nah, I can buy DVDs of actually decent films and series cheaper.
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u/onion_head1 6d ago
Literally just did it. Been a member since about 2015 i think.
My plan (UK based, no ads) went up to £13.99 from £12.99 this month. Its not worth it any more, I'm actually starting to buy DVDs again.
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u/Catarpallar 7d ago
Ben Affleck is washed and unable to make a good movie again. This looked like a low budget movie directed by an amateur.
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u/crafty_bernardo 7d ago
The movie looks like one of those AI short stories on Tik Tok ads and the there's that bland colour grading.
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u/G0ldenG00se 7d ago
It’s now 10 million
calls back 10 min later
Bring me 7 million.
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u/peatoast 6d ago
Dayle: I told ya
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u/Few-Initial-819 4d ago
She somehow knew everything except for the only thing which actually mattered for her which was there being 3 kidnappers instead of 2
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u/CrazyGal2121 7d ago
It captivated me enough that I did not feel like I had to turn it off but it left me unsatisfied
I really wanted to learn more about gillian andersons character
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u/EldritchSlut 7d ago
Oof, at least they saved all that money using AI.
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u/Smart_Freedom_8155 7d ago
I think it'd have been even cheaper to just use a mannequin, for that stunt with the kid flying off the wagon 10+ feet into Ben Affleck's arms.
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u/TerminatorReborn 6d ago
Affleck is reversing any logic, started as a amazing director and has been getting worse ever since
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u/CougarIsReal 5d ago
This movie has almost like 0 substance 😂😂 I think Ben just wanted to show off that he can speak Spanish
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u/NathanTufts 5d ago
Im leaving the movie pretending Ben's campaign manager orchestrated the kidnapping so that Ben could win the Latino vote and pay off his campaign debt. Sequel comes in as Ron witnessed the whole ransom exchange and threatens the newly elected mayor with pictures of the dead bodies.... insert screen fade away and dramatic music ...
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u/kneeco28 7d ago
Lowest 2 Somehow Way, Way Lower
There should be a special category at the next Razzie Awards for worst kidnapping streaming movie starring a Justice League member, and honestly this one should win.
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u/badlisten3r 7d ago
Once the plot kicked off, I said to myself “wait…is this supposed to be a riff on Kurosawa??” And sure enough, it was. I didn’t think you could do worse than Highest 2 Lowest, but my god I was wrong. Nowhere in the marketing, trailers, or promo material was it billed as a remake/reimagining of High and Low, while having pretty much the exact same story. With a really ridiculous immigrant subplot that started to feel unintentionally racist
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u/BusinessPurge 7d ago edited 7d ago
Animals, Enola Holmes 3, The Runner, and even Supergirl. Everyone in the Justice League except Ezra who is probably really kidnapping people
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u/No-Corgi3874 7d ago
the netflixification of affleck's career is something else. went from directing argo to whatever this was in under 15 years. steven yeun deserved better than playing third fiddle in a movie that felt like an algorithm wrote it
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u/ClaytonWest74 7d ago
your comment unintentionally made me laugh, because Yeun was also third fiddle in Affleck’s previous movie, the one he did with Damon on Netflix
so he’s third fiddle for two Ben Affleck movies in a row lol
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u/Skyzfire 7d ago
Btw, the last movie he directed was Air. He has always been inconsistent anyways. He also did Live by Night immediately after Argo.
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u/presco2007 7d ago
i have no idea why yeun did this movie, other than money and maybe a friendship with affleck? it was a nothing character. like many i assumed yeun was behind it all, and while i'm glad things weren't so obvious, it means yeun was wasted.
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u/kneeco28 7d ago
Is he third fiddle? Maybe at some parts. In others, it's Gillian Anderson. And still others, it's the Mexican dad.
Honestly, pretending anyone is playing any music is giving this piece of shit too much credit.
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u/highoktanez 7d ago
Why the FUCK would Ben ever in a million years agree to this pile of shit? Don't say money, dude has made plenty of it, and with his directorial credits he could pick any project he wanted. And he chose this. I need answers Benjamin.
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u/peatoast 6d ago
Uhm money. He has kids to feed 😂
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u/Bench2013 5d ago
Uhm he just sold his company to Netflix for $587-million! He's having no problem feeding his kids!
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u/BlazeOfGlory72 4d ago
It wasn’t the worst movie ever, but it had some bizarre fumbles. Like, the premise is decent and I was at least somewhat engaged in the story up to the end, but then that finale happened and completely deflated everything. How can you have this type of thriller/mystery, and not have any kind of final twist or reveal? The kidnapper was just some guy? How fucking lame. All those other sub plots in the story ended up being utterly pointless.
Also, while I think most of the characters were at least functional, the wife was completely insufferable. Every scene is she is in she just bitches at Ben, and even when caught cheating, she still acts like she was wronged. What was the thought process when writing her? Were we supposed to dislike her?
I feel like there was an okay movie in here, it just needed some tweaks, which should have been obvious.
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u/aspodestrra 4d ago
The kidnapper isn’t just some guy. It’s one of the people whose business was destroyed by some environmental thing Affleck was involved in at the very beginning.
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u/camergen 4d ago
I’m surprised so many reviews miss this. The movie makes it clear that it’s some business that was forced to close due to environmental laws Afflecks character was pushing. The eviction and divorce notices, the silhouette of the guy in the shuttered business looking up family info, the soundbites playing “if some businesses have to close, that’s the price we pay”.. (paraphrasing).
A lot of viewers completely missed the motives of the kidnapper, and I thought that was clear. Who it is specifically didn’t really matter. “Disgruntled business owner mad at him for pursuing environmental laws” is enough.
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u/dixonmyazhold 3d ago
If that’s the case they shouldn’t have tried to do the whole mysterious aspect. Just a random angry guy mad about his business but we don’t know him from that. The mysterious scenes where he’s typing like he’s hacking and then the slow mo mask reveal was pointless since we never saw him before anyways.
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u/Smart_Freedom_8155 7d ago edited 7d ago
This movie tried and somehow failed to be mediocre. As it is, it's simply unfinished - there's a hole in this film where the ending should've been.
It's missing a key "twist" that was supposed to be there, leading up to the finale (like Steven Yeun or Gillian Anderson being the actual person behind the botched kidnapping in the first place, that sorta thing).
Baffles the mind. I heard they used AI here, I gotta assume it wrote the plot too.
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u/CrazyGal2121 7d ago
yeah that’s what I had thought. I thought steven yeun was behind it and it would show how he is willing to do anything to also ensure his child has a good upbringing or something
I was waiting for a twist and it fell flat
wanted to know more about gillian andersons character also
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u/bigwilly311 7d ago edited 7d ago
I have a question about this. I thought that would be the twist, too. But I also think if that HAD been the case, would the audience be giving it shit for that, since it seemed so obvious and projected from the beginning, especially the first scene where he’s asking for all the money.
I also wonder if it was intentional. Like set the audience up to see the characters go through this massive change in their ethics - and all for some nobody kidnapper. COULD that be the point, that it doesn’t have to be some grand conspiracy that ultimately is out of your control; could it just a commentary on the idea that if pushed far enough, anyone can turn into someone they never intended?
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u/Guybrush2355 7d ago
I thought the twist would be that Steven Yeun's character set up the whole kidnapping plan to make Mark the hero. (aka the very costly big swing campaign)
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u/bigwilly311 7d ago
Yeah that’s what I’m saying. I distrusted the character from the get-go, so would that have been a twist? I feel like a lot of the people saying the writing is bad would have said the writing is equally bad had that been the outcome.
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u/AlexCambridgian 6d ago
That's exactly what I think it was. Everything seems to be small issues and how they add in behavioral changes. Even that it was the wife who cheated and Affleck's question whether the man was Black.
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u/bigwilly311 6d ago
In hindsight, the quickness with which Affleck changes from professional politician to “I’m gonna fuckin rip your face off” on that first phone call kind of shows this. That whole scene was one shot, too.
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u/bellestarxo 5d ago
Yeah, putting the villain in the shadows made absolutely no sense because there was no reveal. It was just a random guy...
I'm not sure why they didn't create an actual character. They didn't even reveal what Affleck did to "destroy" his life.
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u/StonkMuncher 6d ago
I came to reddit bc I thought I was missing something. Turns out the movie was missing it.
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u/Smart_Freedom_8155 6d ago
Yep just, a weird choice to avoid giving it actual plot / content towards the end.
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u/narkaputra 5d ago
how does the movie explain that the original lenders of $7M didn't come after him when they must have known it was for the Mayorial candidate only and even if not they could have traved it
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u/Ssme812 7d ago edited 7d ago
- This movie was terrible and a waste of time.
- Its literally the same plot as Highest to Lowest (2025). Instead of music being the focus it political.
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u/Will-Of-D-3D2Y 6d ago
Highest 2 Lowest was at least an official remake of Akira Kurosawa's High And Low (which itself is based of a novel). This movie somehow uses the same plot but doesn't credit the OG.
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u/BriteNancy 3d ago
If you enjoy figuring out which of the secondary characters is motivated to mastermind the crime, don’t bother to watch this movie.
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u/RokuAang625 7d ago
Ban all remakes of any Akira Kurosawa film only living (2022) is allowed to exist
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7d ago
[deleted]
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u/greatfiction 7d ago
he means any remakes after 2022 :)
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u/BusinessPurge 7d ago
Living from 2022 that remakes the 1952 Akira Kurosawa film Ikiru. I haven’t even heard of it until now.
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u/YoRt3m 5d ago edited 4d ago
Things that bothered me in random order:
- A very smart, powerful lady cannot recruit more than 1 man and decide to be Rambo?
- Horrible cart scene with a CGI that feels more like Jazz being thrown out of building by uncle Phil in The Fresh Prince.
- The ending is horrible. it doesn't even give material to think, it's like they had no ideas for a "smart twist" so they decided to call it a day and go home.
- The political side of it is known and understandable but there were 2 points that it felt forced and over the top.
- Ben's wife is insufferable.
- They tried to make the kidnappers smart, but in hindsight their actions were bland.
The good aspects of it:
- Ben acting was great
- I like smart characters, the campaign guy did a great job and he's a well written character.
- It was intense for a while there in the middle of the movie.
If the ending was better this could be a 7\10 for me. but after that ending I think without Ben I would say it doesn't even deserve a 5\10. I'll give it a 6\10 because I enjoyed the middle of it.
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u/dcwinger12 4d ago
Honestly there was a lot of potential for some good twists too.
I thought for sure that the campaign manager orchestrated everything. He gets a cut of the ransom money (split with the blonde lady/whoever else) and Ben’s actions in getting the latino boy back get him the election win.
I figured it’d end with showing some election elsewhere and he’s there to run it. Repeating the “I’m very good at my job” line from earlier in the movie.
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u/amegaproxy 4d ago
Ben acting was great
That crying scene was definitely not great
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u/SuperSnake16 5d ago
Besides some poorly written scenes/plot developments and the awfully shot climax (I did still find it interesting though), I thought it was still decent trashy fun. Much better than Highest 2 Lowest honestly and more watchable than the usual crap Netflix movies. 6/10
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u/Dontyellatmebrah 4d ago
It wasn’t great but I enjoyed it. Not every movie is an academy award winner. They tried to make the focus on his ambition not the plot twists everyone expected. Honestly if they had cast a worse actress than GA it might have worked better. But she’s so good you just want to know more. I prefer plot to theme and this was primarily theme focused which in itself was a twist. They got me.
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u/Delicious_Morning_51 6d ago
When Gillian asks for the gardener to be brought in, and Affleck goes out to look for him and instead finds a hole in the fence and the gardener gone.. What was that all about?
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u/These_Tiger_1489 5d ago
His girlfriend had called to tell him she’d been attacked and he immediately left to get her
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u/Delicious_Morning_51 5d ago
Aah ok.. Didn't understand why he cut a hole in the fence😂
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u/macademicnut 5d ago
He didn’t, the hole was already there. Ben affleck’s character had sent him back there to fix it
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u/greatfiction 7d ago
I got heavily downvoted saying this movie will be bad, cause of Netflix and Affleck running around praising AI (plus the template they all shared), look at me not being surprised that movie is shite.
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u/Smart_Freedom_8155 7d ago
I wish you'd been wrong but I'm glad you at least get some vindication here. Might be the only silver lining of this whole experience.
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u/CiriOh 7d ago
Boring and toothless version of High and Low. Looks bad too, cannot believe, that Affleck directed it.
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u/SarcasticGamer 5d ago
What a stupid ass movie. So if Ben Affleck doesn't pay the ransom for some random Mexican kid it means he's racist which will result in him losing the Latino vote and not be elected msyor? What? How in the hell does that remotely make any sense? If that's the case then why not just drop out of the race? Is being mayor more important than a kid's life and owing $7m to some random ass lady? Again, such a stupid movie.
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u/Sweaty-Rope7141 5d ago
I hated the movie but honestly don’t think what you described is that crazy. He’s not just running to be some random mayor, he’s being touted as the president elect if he wins. Winning this race basically defines him and changes his life forever and people like him will do anything to win. Do you think Gavin Newsom (who this is basically based on) would pull out of the race the day before the election to save $7m or a random kid?
I also don’t the Latino vote part is too outlandish. The vote was on a knives edge and while the majority of people wouldn’t have judged him for treating the Latino kid differently to his own, it would have just taken one media outlet to run with a “Mayor Candidate Risks Life of Latino Boy for $7m” to sway enough voters to go against him.
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u/YoRt3m 5d ago
How is this crazy? look at reddit and you'll see hundreds of comments a day about how X is racist or how the rich are evil. look at any politic race and you'll see accusations from any kind without any real substance.
Also dropping the race doesn't mean the kid is safe.
I don't know how you got to any of these conclusions.
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u/SarcasticGamer 4d ago
They expect him to pay the ransom because the kid is Mexican or people will think he's racist and not vote for him to be mayor of LA which ruins his chance to become president. Newsflash Ben, there has only been a single time in the history of the United States that a mayor has become president without first becoming governor and that's only happened twice. Becoming president after only being a mayor is literally equal to that of a reality tv star. The second he realized his own kid wasn't in any danger then he should have contacted the authorities.
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u/MRgibbson23 6d ago
When Ben's character confronts his wife I just kept thinking how much Kerry Washington's character really sucks and how she's handling this terribly but she's also been unlikable from the start and then it dawned on me... Did Affleck wrote the character of the wife just to vent about Jennifer Lopez?
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u/Money_Relief_6267 5d ago
How did Ramon know where to find the attacker/kidnapper that was hiding in the bush behind the construction equipment. I feel like that question was never asked/answered
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u/cheezebergereddie 5d ago
I enjoyed the symbolism when he said “ice” and the truck moved and there was a pig
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u/NCBaddict 7d ago
Haha this was trashy fun, don’t know what others are complaining about here. Just get to see Ben Affleck & Kerry Washington spaz-ing out at each other for an hour.
I was amused that the sets were basically a house & random blocks of LA b/c the main actors clearly pocketed the entire budget.
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u/peatoast 6d ago
I made the same comments about the obvious low budget. Looks like they rented an Airbnb in Brentwood, drove around LA for a bit and that’s it! It was a fun watch and I’m happy he split the money with Ramon in the end. 😂
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u/DavyJonesRocker 7d ago
I’m just glad to see Ray Fisher again. Glad Batman could throw Cyborg a bone.
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u/PaleBloodBeast 6d ago
Still baffled about the cryptic way Anderson's character was speaking her lines. All her mysteriousnes only to get one shotted 😂
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u/Normal_Lie_336 6d ago
Folk going on about the (laughable) cart launch scene are missing a bigger point here: why the fuck was it photographed and edited like the stakes were massive? If the kid had face planted, it would have hurt (and probably broken his nose) but the scene acts like it's about to launch him off a cliff to his death.
The only explanation is that had Affleck not been there to catch him, the cart would have inexplicably launched him into traffic at the other side of the river, which, I guess, going by the physics on display was entirely possible.
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u/BusinessPurge 7d ago
I never knew Ransom was a remake of Ransom! which was an adaptation of a tv episode produced by the United States Steel Corporation in the 50’s.
High and Low is a better comparison for plot, however I’m guessing Affleck was more influenced by Ransom’s success in the 90’s.
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u/helplesspanda 5d ago
It felt like watching an episode of Scandal, The Fall and the movie Gone Girl.
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u/ToniBell2 1d ago
I'm late to this but I loved the movie. It had some moments that made me genuinely feel, like: * the despair of a kidnapped chil * frustration at Abby's lying * anger that they are hiding that a child had been kidnapped from his father * Abby is horrible * pain at Mark learning his wife is a cheating disgrace * turned on when Mark said he wants to fuck his wife all the time * a little confusion * peace.
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u/presco2007 7d ago
this was truly a disappointment considering affleck's involvement. it was a real waste of the talents of all involved. not sure why this was a pet project for anyone.
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u/Significant_Fish_263 5d ago
Pretty sure Ramon was in on it the whole time, as was Dayle, and the plan was to erase the loose ends (ie the kidnappers), but Ramon was the one to really clean up the loose ends.
Ramon either lied to Ceci about Hector's mom, or Ceci lied to Abigail and Mark. Either way, I wouldn't put it past Sam to have thought it all up to sway the election win. He probably didn't expect the bodies, but he clearly didn't have issue with it either when Dayle raised option 3.
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u/peatoast 6d ago
I enjoyed this movie because I had zero expectations and knew it was going to be low budgeted. It’s kinda hilarious how they basically filmed in one location plus some limited outdoor ones.
The acting was also pretty bad.
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u/iamnairobi83 6d ago
Nobody's acting was bad. Not even the kids. Lol
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u/beerforbears 5d ago
I'm not even finished but his wife is the most annoying, counterproductive character I've seen in any media
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u/Accomplished-Try4551 5d ago
I watched the movie because of Steven Yeun and Beef. What a waste of Steven.
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u/YooGeOh 5d ago
It was Ron!
Gillian Andersons character said it was two kidnappers. This was an illusion to the fact that it was the white guy in the room with the el tribal equipment, and Ron, who was the guy Ramon beat up
Also, when they had the last phone call when the kidnapper says that Mark destroyed everything he had built and that he no longer had anythjng to lose, he was speaking about the relationship he'd built with Mark's wife.
He mentioned that after Mark's wife had messaged him saying its over. Thus him no longer having anything to lose.
I was surprised there was no big reveal because it seemed pretty pointless having Cyborg from Justice League in the movie for exactly one scene.
I also thought there was going to be a big revela because in the fight scene between the kidnapper and Ramon, the kidnapper had the same physique as Ron, and they made a big deal about showing off Ron's physique in the scene he meets Mark's wife.
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u/NickFamzi 5d ago
I like the Ghostbusters references, especially that gigantic Stay Puft balloon 😄 🤣
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u/StringBBean 5d ago
It was bad. Bad script. Bad dialogue. Bad movie. In a way that was so disappointing for me. I am a fan of Ben's movies. This was horrid. Plus, I can't take another project with the doe-eyed-deer-in-the-headlights-same-facial-expression-for-every-emotion Kerry Washington. I knew about 15 minutes in I'd feel this way, but sat through the entire movie just so that could find more things to fuss about. Call me petty. But don't call this a good movie. Cause it's not.
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u/Bwhitt1 4d ago
What a shit movie lol. Since when did Ben Affleck start doing straight to VoD movies that were actually VoD quality lol. I mean I couldnt believe what I was watching lol. Why the fuck would he agree to this??? Also the weird forced political message after the shootout lol....it was so shoe horned into the ending.
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u/Cultural-Alarm-6422 6d ago
This movie literally only created so Ben could show off his Spanish speaking abilities lmao