Review: Every Last One of Them

Paul Sloan plays a former special ops guy looking in a small town for his missing drug-addicted daughter. He runs afoul of Jake Weber, who basically owns the entire town…and is very clearly involved in whatever has happened to Sloan’s daughter. The only person in town who seems in any way supportive of Sloan is local sheriff Mary Christina Brown. Michael Madsen appears in flashbacks as Sloan’s mechanic buddy, Richard Dreyfuss plays Sloan’s former boss and mentor, and Taryn Manning is Weber’s tough sister.

 

A wildly eclectic cast is wasted or miscast in this dreadful 2021 Christian Sesma (“Pay Dirt” with Luke Goss and Val Kilmer, “Take Back” with Mickey Rourke and Michael Jai White) action-thriller. Every element of the story here is familiar from other action films, and almost every element fails to convince. I mean, I’ve seen better latter-day Steven Seagal films than this. Even some of the ones where he spends most of his time sitting in a chair because he’s too freaking fat to move.

 

The flashbacks here are especially unconvincing, showing us what happened to Paul Sloan’s daughter and why he’s on the warpath. By virtue of not being flagrantly miscast, Paul Sloan ends up faring…least bad here as our John Rambo-ish leading man. How Rambo-ish? We even get a wound-cauterising scene for crying out loud. Sloan (who looks like a combo of Antonio Banderas and Vinnie Jones) isn’t dreadful, but he’s also not particularly interesting. At least he doesn’t look out of place like Jake Weber, however. As our lead villain, Jake Weber is appallingly miscast trying to act all gruff and tough, coming off more tired and old – laughable, really. He’s definitely not menacing, and why put him in the role when you’ve got Michael Madsen right there wasting away on the sidelines? It’s a vintage Madsen role if ever I’ve seen one, instead Madsen gets to be seen mostly in flashbacks in a nothing part. The flashbacks by the way, are really dreadfully integrated into the film. It's a discombobulating experience. Perhaps Madsen was only available for a day or two but still it’s poorly done. Taryn Manning – no stranger to giving a dreadful performance – isn’t any more convincing as his sister. The worst performance by far though, goes to an actress named Mary Christina Brown as a local cop. Good lord does it look like her first day acting. Terrible. As for the rather surprising appearance by Richard Dreyfuss, his role is entirely beneath him and his lethargic, distracted performance suggests he knows it. He gets to play Trautman to Sloan’s Rambo, but there’s no billy goat speech here. It’s probably the usually fine actor’s worst performance to date – he looks like he needs a nap. A look at the end credits reveals the likely reason why he, Sloan, Weber, Manning, and Madsen are all here – They’re all EPs who likely made money on it. Dreyfuss’ wife was even an EP here. Good for you, Richard. Next time give the audience something worthwhile, though.

 

Lame, poorly cast mixture of “First Blood” and “Rambo: Last Blood” is dreadfully edited and a rather cynically made film with zero originality and dull action. The cinematography is nice, but so what? Definitely among the worst films of its year. Somehow the screenplay required several hands on it: Chee Keong Cheung (“Underground”), Alistair Cave, and Matthew Thomas Edwards. Remember those names in future and beware.   

 

Rating: D-