The Tax Collector

Starring: Bobby Soto, Shia LaBeouf, George Lopez, Cinthya Carmona, Jose Conejo Martin

Director: David Ayer

David (Bobby Soto) is a "Tax Collector" for local crime lord Wizard. Along with Creeper (Shia LaBeouf), he drives all over South Central Los Angeles to collect Wizard's cut from the local gangs and ensure things are running smoothly. When they discover that Wizard's rival Conejo (Jose Conejo Martin) has come to town and threatens to destroy their entire operation, David must do what he can to protect his wife Alexis (Cinthya Carmona) and their kids.

What happened to Ayer? The once promising writer who burst onto the scene writing hits like Training Day and The Fast and the Furious who went on to direct the well received End of Watch and Fury is behind this mess? I guess after Sabotage and Bright the writing was on the wall.

Ayer clearly loves telling stories about gangs in South Central Los Angeles and the unsavory characters that populate them. I'm just not sure what he was trying to accomplish here. The story just isn't that interesting and by the time it does get somewhat interesting, it's hard to care. The film becomes an orgy of senseless violence and gore on its way to an anticlimactic and unintentionally hilarious finale. It starts to remind you of movies that did this better, which include some of Ayer's previous films.

It's crazy that this movie is only an hour and a half. It feels like two different films even. The first half being a buddy movie between Soto and Shia and the second half feeling like deleted scenes from a Rambo movie. Why set up Shia so much then not have him be present for the climax of the film, replaced by a character we only meet for a minute prior? It's just sloppy.

Maybe it would have helped if Ayer had chosen a better actor to lead the film. For such a feared enforcer, Bobby Soto's David isn't remotely threatening and often his line delivery feels like a first take. Especially late in the film when Conejo enters the picture and things begin to go haywire, his transformation into Rambo isn't believable at all. LaBeouf, on the other hand, is a mad man. Or, on the surface is a madman, as his character is described as a psychopath but we never really see it. So while LaBeouf clearly has fun spouting Ayer's dialogue and acting menacing, you never get to see the character realized to its true potential.

How disappointing.

Grade: D

The Tax Collector is available on VOD