This is yet another David Ayer movie where the trailer is better than the actual film joining the ranks of his other films: Suicide Squad, Sabotage, and Bright. I had strong hope for this one that it would be his comeback after a couple of mediocre joints. I feel that whoever cuts his trailers deserves a raise because they sure know how to make the film appear better than it is.
The Tax Collector was simply a huge disappointment. I expected a lot as I loved End of Watch, Fury, and Training Day, which he wrote. I knew it wouldn’t reach those films’ level, but I felt Ayer could have at least surpassed Bright as that movie didn’t reach its potential either.
It follows David (Bobby Soto) and Creeper (Shia LaBeouf), who work as “tax collectors” for a crime lord named Wizard, collecting his cut from the profits of local gangs. But when Wizard’s old rival returns to Los Angeles from Mexico, his entire business is upended, and David finds himself desperate to protect what matters most to him – his family.
The plot was prime for all the stuff I love in my “hood” films, but Ayer honestly managed to make something this perfect for him so uninteresting. So much of the dialogue and execution were filled with genre clichés. There are virtually no surprises in this movie, aside from one scene that I honestly didn’t see coming but felt more like it was for shock value. I feel like Ayer was playing his greatest hits and not doing it as right as before. He copied a bit from other films of his and fell flat on his face.
Ayer is usually celebrated at directing action as he showed in Suicide Squad and Fury, but I don’t know if the film’s low budget restrained him because this just wasn’t it. The trailer looked very action-packed, and we honestly got two action sequences, and that’s it. The action sequences we got were good for the most part, aside from a slow-motion one that had me laughing a bit because it felt like something Ayer picked up from Zack Snyder during his DC stint.
One of the biggest slaps in the face was Ayer showing a lot of dead bodies but, for the most part, not showing us how those deaths happened. I guess that the film’s budget, which was probably $5-7 million wasn’t enough for him to film as many kills as possible. I’m all for great kills, but sometimes the violence in this was excessive for the sake of it.
The editing was terrible as the run time was only 95 minutes, yet it felt a lot longer. I was bored at times and checked how much time was left a handful of times, which is honestly not what a director ever wants his audience to do.
Regarding Shia LaBeouf, it was Joker in Suicide Squad all over again, where we were made to believe that Jared Leto would be in the film a lot in the trailer only to be let down by the final product.
Suppose you’re expecting Shia to run away with the film than you are sorely mistaken. The trailer showed all of his best scenes, and he’s honestly only in the movie for about 20-25 minutes at best. The trailer makes him come off like a super badass, and while the film does an excellent job at hinting it, we don’t see much of it. There are many scenes where we see him covered in blood, but we don’t see him in the act. We are just supposed to believe he is this man who puts fear in people’s hearts.
Despite not being utilized him the way the trailer promised, Shia is easily the best thing in this movie. I feel after delivering the two best performances of his career last year with The Peanut Butter Falcon and Honey Boy, that Shia is above this. Shia is a big method actor, having cut his face for Ayer’s Fury because the makeup wasn’t convincing enough, and he’s at it again. For this movie, the chest piece that his character Creeper has was one Shia got for real. It’s just a huge bummer that he went this hard for such a bad movie.
Bobby Soto is the real lead of the movie, and he did a stable job, but I couldn’t buy him as this gangster. He honestly looked and came off like somebody playing dress up in the scenes that asked for him to act tough. He takes a lot of losses in the film, and I get that Ayer was trying to get us to sympathize with him, but to me, who came from a rough neighborhood, he comes off as too soft for the game.
Jose Conejo Martin, as the villain, was excellent. He’s the definition of a cold-blooded killer. He does things in this film that are genuinely shocking. He managed to make what could have been a very cliche villain work by being threatening and menacing.
George Lopez, as David’s uncle, did excellent work in his three scenes. It’s not anything out of this world, but the role is so different from anything Lopez has ever done that it was nice to see. He plays the OG who’s trying to live a straight life having a garage but is still involved in away. He never comes off like he’s trying to play hard like Bobby Soto. He comes off very believable.
In conclusion, to anyone reading, please don’t waste your time with this movie, even with it being 95 minutes. This feels perfectly at home landing on VOD. Life’s too short, and honestly, you’re better off re-watching or discovering his two best films, End of Watch and Fury.
