The Bag Man - Double, Triple. Quadruple Crossing; Why Keep Track Anymore?

I saw the trailer for The Bag Man and already had this feel that the movie was going to be an all-out war between John Cusack and Robert De Niro, which is something that you don't see everyday. My father automatically criticized the movie and said that the plot does not look to appealing.

After watching the movie, all I have to say is that a lot of what my father said was true.

The Bag Man tells the story of Jack, played by John Cusack, a man who's been chosen by your average stereotypical rich evil guy Dragna, played by Robert De Niro, to get a bag for him in exchange for money. While waiting for Dragna in a motel, Jack spots who appears to be a prostitute by the name of Rivka, played by Rebecca Da Costa, who also gets tossed up into the plot as well.

Right off the bat, the plot does not make any sense. Of course, we don't know the histories of Jack nor Dragna, but their characters are sort of implied through an initial stereotypical lens of rich guy and guy under rich guy that does the rich guy's bidding.

As the plot progresses, we do start to see more and more of the backgrounds of the characters, however, the characters seem to have this plastic sort of sense to them.

There was supposed to be this sort of suspense to what was in the bag throughout the whole movie, but overall I did not feel any suspense. Sure, I felt something when what was in the bag was revealed, but it was not as powerful as I thought it would be.

I was originally going to give this movie a 3, but with the decision to add some details in the end further complicated the plot even more and did not make the movie experience any better. The end really spoils the rest of the movie, and I did not really like the movie, no matter if De Niro or Cusack were in it.

I give this movie a 2/5.