Directed by: Tim J. Brown
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Ashley Greene, Rick Fox, Ron Perlman, Jackie Earle Haley, Thalia Campbell, Ernie Hudson, Lynn Whitfield, Joel David Moore
One thing I have to say about Nicolas Cage is: No matter how shoddy the movie he's in, he gives it his all. His resume, even in his "renaissance", is full of forgettable movies which don't do justice to his talent. Cage is not the problem with The Retirement Plan, which is chock full of plot holes, loose ends, characters who tease interesting arcs and then nothing is done with them, and action sequences where guns and bombs are going off in a harbor and no one seems to notice. There are so many twists and turns that, by the end, we are twisted and turned out. And we don't even learn the fate of a key character who is held hostage earlier in the film.
I'll try and recap as best as I can. Ashley (Greene), a fuckup whose boyfriend steals a thumb drive from a mobster Donnie (Haley), who swears a lot and acts apoplectic often, to turn over to the FBI (I think). A mole inside the agency (Moore), tips off Donnie and his boss Hector (a woman by the way) about the theft. This leaves the boyfriend and Ashley captured by Donnie, but not before Ashley sends their six-year-old daughter (Campbell) to Grand Cayman Islands to find her estranged grandfather Matt (Cage), a drunk who is passed out on the beach when his granddaughter discovers him. Matt hasn't seen his daughter in ten years and never knew he had a granddaughter, but soon Donnie's goons are pulling up to Matt's house and Matt thrashes them. You see, Matt was a hired assassin who worked for the agency, and was allegedly forced to retire but still seems to be able to work with his former boss (Whitfield) in getting information and assistance at a moment's notice.
Donnie's goons are led by Bobo (Perlman), who is successful in kidnapping the granddaughter and holding her hostage, but he turns out to be a pretty good fella, as kidnappers go. The movie teases a change of heart from Bobo, but then this is dispensed with later. There is another puzzling scene in which three goons are pounding at Matt's hotel door. Matt's plan is to quickly open the door, grab one of the goons, and then quickly shut the door again. The two remaining guys stand there in silence staring at the door wondering what to do next. Wouldn't the others start kicking at the door again trying to break in? Then, there is the CIA head honcho played by former basketball star Rick Fox, who is introduced as a shady character but then at the end is left to explain the entire plot to Matt, who then escapes in a boat while leaving his daughter and granddaughter in the custody of an agency full of double agents. If there was a tearful reunion scene between Ashley and Matt, I missed it. So did the movie.
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