Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
In the not-too-distant future, as a final response to crime and terrorism, the U.S. government plans to broadcast a signal that will make it impossible for anyone to knowingly break the law.
The Last Days of American Crime squanders a genuinely interesting premise — a government signal that eliminates willful crime — by burying it under a bloated, generic heist narrative. The plot meanders badly across its nearly 2.5-hour runtime, failing to develop its sci-fi concept with any real depth or tension. Acting is largely flat, with Edgar Ramirez and the ensemble unable to elevate thin, clichéd characterization. Cinematography is competent but glossy in a generic action-thriller way, offering nothing visually distinctive. The premise offers some novelty from its comic-book source, but the execution is so derivative of countless heist films that the distinctiveness evaporates quickly. The ending is particularly weak, failing to deliver on the moral or narrative stakes the premise promised, resolving in a deeply unsatisfying fashion that crystallizes the film's overall failure.