Precious Cargo is about criminals. Its main character, Jack (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), is first introduced in a scene that has him selling illegal weapons to other criminals. The deal quickly goes south, but it turns out it was all part of Jack’s plan to rip these guys off. He and his gang end up killing the goons, and Jack heads out to see his girlfriend Jenna (Lydia Hull). But his old flame Karen (Claire Forlani) shows up in his house pregnant, claiming that the baby is his. She asks him for his help because she is being pursued by crime boss Eddie (Bruce Willis) for a heist gone wrong. Karen also asks Jack to help her pull off a heist that could get her out of trouble.
Jack reluctantly agrees. There is a heist. There is a twist. There is another twist. There is another heist. Through it all, Jack mostly looks angry. The film tries to keep a light tone, but its hero doesn’t seem to be enjoying anything he’s doing. And the film actually his story around his relationship with his girlfriend, who seems to represent the life that he could be having, instead of participating in these high stakes games, where he’s pulling off heists and dealing with very dangerous people.
Except at the start of the movie, we establish that this is a guy who doesn’t really seem to have a problem hurting other people. And as the film goes on, its bouncy tone indicates that we’re supposed to find his criminal actions somewhat enjoyable. He’s supposed to enjoy how clever he is, how he finds ways to outwit his opponents and end up hurting them. The movie is emotionally hollow. It goes through the motions of being a movie about a criminal who actually wants to settle down with a girl while simultaneously convinced of how cool it is to be a criminal.
This is all pulled off with competent style. The action scenes aren’t very creative, and the movie doesn’t have the resources to pull off anything too crazy. But it’s all relatively well shot, and it mostly gets the job done. Though the movie as a whole kind of feels like something that was made for television, the action sequences do provide some semblance of quality. It certainly can’t stand up to a lot of modern action nowadays, but some of these sequences are still mildly thrilling.
But that’s about as good as it gets. Again, the story doesn’t really make a lot of sense. The direction feels incongruous with what’s happening on screen at times. Mark-Paul Gosselaar doesn’t lack for energy, but the character is so ill-defined that the actor just ends up shifting rapidly between tones. Claire Forlani doesn’t quite pull off the femme fatale role, the actress never really able to convey the sense of danger her character is supposed to represent. And in what seems to be a sad trend, Bruce Willis shows up but exhibits no commitment to the role he’s playing.
Precious Cargo is your standard modern action film that’s really meant for the lowered standards of VOD. As something you can just turn on in a moment of boredom, it is the kind of movie that offers the kind of forward momentum that might be worth keeping on while cooking or doing the laundry or something. In the context of the cinema, it is a little more difficult to sell. It has competent action scenes, but little else. Its plot never really makes sense, and there are certain points where it feels like the cast knows it.
My Rating:
