When Ashley and her young daughter Sarah get caught up in a criminal enterprise that puts their lives at risk, she turns to the only person who can help: her estranged father Matt, currently living...
“The Retirement Plan” is a throwaway action movie that’s also highly entertaining. The production values are poor, the story is uncomplicated, and the supporting cast is weak. But if you go expecting the bare minimum, you’ll be delightfully surprised at how enjoyable writer/director Tim Brown‘s movie actually is.
Ashley (Ashley Greene) and her daughter Sarah (Thalia Campbell) find themselves attracting the unwanted attention of criminal mastermind Donnie (Jackie Earle Haley) and his ruthless group of henchmen. Ashley’s husband Jimmy (Jordan Johnson-Hinds) has gotten himself involved with some very bad people, and now they want his family dead. With their lives at risk, Ashley sends her kid to a place no one will ever think to look: to hide out with her estranged father Matt (Nicolas Cage), a retired beach bum living in the Cayman Islands. The illusion of safety is short-lived, as Donnie’s top guy Bobo (Ron Perlman) tracks them down and takes Sarah hostage. Desperate to save her daughter, Ashley depends on Matt for help — but a secret past reveals there’s more to her father than anyone has ever known.
It’s a simple story that’s well told, and there are several exciting action sequences. Brown isn’t a great director, but he surrounds himself with a talented lead cast. Greene gives a better than expected performance as a distraught mother, Campbell is an appealing child actor, and Perlman fits the part as a gun wielding, lunkhead errand boy. There’s even a bit part for the ever charismatic Ernie Hudson as one of Matt’s longtime buddies. But the star of the movie is Cage, an actor who always seems to choose interesting roles. He brings his own brand of kooky yet again, and if you’re a fan of Cage, you’ll dig this movie.
This isn’t a big budget, slick and polished action film by any means. The production quality is extremely low, from the sloppy CGI effects, second-rate stunt work, and some laughably bad performances from the smaller background actors. It’s the type of movie that would be right at home going direct to video, or being shown on a plane where you’d forget having seen it a few hours later.
But the earned R-rating from a plethora of violence, action, and cussing along with an entertainment factor that stays the course makes “The Retirement Plan” a lot more gratifying that you’d ever expect.
