Search results
Feb 28, 2014 · Robert De Niro plays a heavy named Dragna, who hires Jack to transport a mysterious black leather bag for him. Jack is warned over and over again to not look in the bag. The job is simple on the face of it: retrieve the bag, go to a specific motel, and wait in Room 13 for further instructions.
The Bag Man R 2014 1h 48m Crime Drama Mystery & Thriller List 11% Tomatometer 46 Reviews 22% Audience Score 1,000+ Ratings A criminal waits in a seedy motel and waits for his boss after...
- (46)
- David Grovic
- R
- Robert De Niro
Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 6, 2014. Rotten Tomatoes, home of the Tomatometer, is the most trusted measurement of quality for Movies & TV. The definitive site for Reviews,...
- Stay on the seedy side of life.
- Verdict
By Cliff Wheatley
Updated: Aug 16, 2021 11:58 pm
Posted: Feb 26, 2014 8:13 pm
The Bag Man, directed by David Grovic, is a grimy noir that celebrates scenery-chewing and smart alecks, even when it doesn’t entirely fit the tone that the movie establishes early on. There are certainly worse low-budget crime flicks out there; at least The Bag Man gives us the opportunity to enjoy John Cusack and Robert De Niro play off one another.
Jack (Cusack) is a hired gun that is told by Dragna (De Niro) to retrieve a bag for him and wait at a motel to make the hand-off. Dragna makes it clear that no matter what, Jack is not to look in the bag; his job is simply to make the hand-off as requested. Of course, things don’t go quite so smoothly, as Jack is immediately hunted by others on the prowl for the bag, and he has to consider that his boss is toying with him. With his job hindered by unexpected competitors and a down-on-her-luck woman named Rivka (Rebecca De Costa), Jack goes through one hell of a night.
The pieces are somewhat familiar and borderline cliché, but Grovic manages to subvert most expectations. We’ve seen the hitman-with-a-heart-of-gold shtick from Cusack before, and in fact Jack could very well be his character from Grosse Point Blank twenty years later, but when we expect him to be warm and sympathetic he winds up being the opposite and vice versa. He’s got the cutting snark we expect from Cusack, but is just as able to give Jack some depth in the few scenes where he talks about his past. The twists and turns of the plot and the mystery of the bag are equally surprising, only becoming clear near the end once the seeds have been placed throughout the movie.
While it doesn’t stick the landing and houses some erroneous characters that have little to add to the whole, The Bag Man still manages to be an entertaining crime-noir with some fun characters and a lot of mystery. It’s worth a watch if you’re a fan of Cusack or De Niro, or are simply looking for a seedier world than your own to play in for a whil...
- Cliff Wheatley
Mar 5, 2014 · Reviews. Mar 4, 2014 5:43pm PT. Film Review: ‘The Bag Man’. What's in the bag? A tedious, self-consciously quirky postmodern noir featuring John Cusack and Robert De Niro in two of the...
If you like films like Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs than you'll love the Bag Man. Really good neo noir film with dark humor and a gritty, hip, edgy factor. John Cusack is great as "Jack" the hit-man assigned by Robert De Niro to look after a mysterious bag with unknown contents.
Feb 28, 2014 · The Bag Man: Directed by David Grovic. With John Cusack, Rebecca Da Costa, Robert De Niro, Crispin Glover. A criminal bides his time at a seedy motel, waiting for his boss after killing several men and making away with a mystery bag.
