User reviews

An action movie with some good scenes, some good lines (best of them being a drunk Nick Loeb asking 'What brings you to Thailand?' and Mark-Paul Gosselaar replying 'Thailand? We are in Mississippi man…'), some good ideas and some good characters (Logan, played by Jenna B. Kelly above all).

In the end, however, the cast fails to catch, the plot doesn't entertain and the film doesn't work.

Probably Claire Forlani shouldn't be older than MP Gosselaar, surely some key scenes (the boat chase, the final showdown, the heist…) should be more convincing.

And the presence of Bruce Willis only worsens the things because it heightens the expectations. A few more films like this and his tough-guy character risks to become laughable.

For a low budget film it's not bad, it's not great but still it's not bad. It is your usual run of the mill cat and mouse chase where a job goes wrong and the bad guys hunt them down. Bruce Willis obviously is the bad guy and plays the role as a p****D off mobster well. As I started this review of with the words of low budget which cost just over 10 million to make which I'm guessing Bruce Willis is getting half of that so that left 5 million to make the film which shows with some average acting, the action scenes are like it's been made for the channel SYFY and some of the lines are just awful. But despite all the faults above the film is only 85 minutes long so it's not really going to take up your time if you want to watch it.

This is a movie that suffers from a bad script, acting, directing ... just a bad movie overall.A movie so bad it makes bad look movies look good.

There is absolutely no acting from anyone of the actors. The Story line is lame and the acting even lamer. Each actor looked like they had to have their teeth pulled to utter their lines. Claire Forlaine looks old enough to be the lead actors Mother. I have no idea what Bruce Wills was doing in the movie and Jenna B Kelly cant act to save herself. The rest of the cast was there in the movie to make sure a bad movie stayed bad.

The boat chase scene is the only scene that is barely watchable. Jenna B Kelly except for looking good cant do anything else. I have seen novices act better.

Seriously save your self the trouble and skip this movie.

This movie is god awful. Id rather let my children talk to strangers than let them watch this. Who ever wrote this movie should be shot. Not just because the dialog, story-line, and everything in the movie sucked, but because I was wondering if the writer even knew what a writing was.

Action movie with horrible gun acting. Hardly any recoil, and at one point some of the slides of the guns were cocked back or not even closed fully. I could go on for about an hour about the crappy gun stuff, but you would want to shoot me too.

The actors, may be great. but the writing was so bad its hard for any actor to act with the lines. Did not fit situation and was really uncomfortable. I feel bad for some of these actors as this movie will seriously hurt them. Even for Willis, this was one of his worse films, and it all comes back to the writer. How could you act well when you have these kind of crappy lines.

Filming was just as bad as everything else in the movie, I felt like they enjoyed green screen a little too much, forgot what good lighting consists of, and some of the camera angles were a big sign that boasts of a low budget film.

Save yourself, save your friends, save random strangers, save the cute old lady across this street. be a public servant and don't bother with this movie, just don't.

Boy, did wisecracks degenerate pretty severely since Die Hard and the good ol '90s. This faceplant reeks of cheap thrills, direct-to-DVD actors and, of course, a 150 year old Bruce Willis. I'm about 2/3 into the movie and I've already forgotten half of the plot. Mark-Paul Gosselaar, the Michelangelo of Thieves apparently, acts with the kind of confidence only a guy who thinks Wakeboarding is an extreme sport would. And did I mention every girlfriend is a sniper? Granted, no adults were involved in the making of 'Precious Cargo', or it wouldn't have been made at all. This train wreck is what happens when subpar directors try to make movies for millennials – the most unlikely-to-happen plot in the universe right now.

A few weeks have passed, and that of course means we get yet another movie from the sausage factory that is of schlock producers Randall Emmett and George Furla. This is yet another effort of theirs that stars Bruce Willis. Well, actually it's hard to say that he "stars" in this movie, because once again he appears in a movie where it's clear he knocked off his few scenes in just a couple or so days of shooting.

It's just as well, because Willis gives yet another lazy performance that further shows he doesn't give much of a darn to his few remaining fans these days. Actually, Willis' sleepwalking comes across as Olivier compared to some of the other actors. It was hard to say who gives the worst performance in the movie, but ultimately I give the award to Jenna B. Kelly, who plays Logan. She doesn't seem to be trying at all to add emotion or any other signs of acting to her lines.

In fairness to Kelly and the rest of the cast, they have to deal with a screenplay that is packed with gawd-awful lines of dialogue that even the best thespians would have difficult selling to an audience. What's worse is that some of these lines of dialogue are intended to be funny, and not only are they not funny, they seem to be mocking the audience who is watching this movie.

As for the (limited) action, it's routine at best, and flat and uninteresting at its worst. You may be wondering if there is ANYTHING good to say about this movie. Well, some of the camera-work does impress at times - I wasn't expecting the sometimes elaborate moves by the camera for a straight to DVD movie such as this. Especially one that is bad in every other way you can think of.

Saw 'Precious Cargo' because Bruce Willis has done good films and given good performances in the past, 'Die Hard' is a genre landmark and his performance is iconic in that. The title and poster also intrigued and similarly the idea for the story sounded sort of interesting, despite a lack of originality. Expectations were not high though, because Willis has been past prime for a while (several bad films and has looked tired and disengaged a lot) and has been in a lot of stinkers lately.

'Precious Cargo' is yet another not good representation of him, if not as bad as 'Vice' and especially 'Reprisal'. 'Precious Cargo' is a better film to that while having similar, actually even the same, faults. It fails in the action and thrills stakes, faring very unfavourably in relation to other films seen in the genre, lots of silliness and endless predictability. Not hating it with pleasure, it's my honest opinion and my negative feelings towards it are regrettable.

Not much redeemable here, with the best thing being the promising opening scene before the film quickly goes down south in quality and not only doesn't ever recover but it gets worse.

However, for someone highly billed, Willis is used poorly (again, am seeing a pattern here), he looks tired and like he didn't want to be there. Claire Forlani also looks disinterested. The worst performance comes from Jenna B Kelly, whose performance is an awful mess of being obnoxious and generating little personality.

Visually, the film does lack cohesion, is pretty sloppy in camera work and editing and the colour scheme is so unappealingly murky. The music is too loud, should have been used far less and some of the placement is inappropriate. The direction is suggestive of inexperience, there is just no energy, momentum or finesse, the non-action oriented parts are handled so indifferently and the action is shot in a way that can be difficult to follow.

Dialogue from the very start to the predictable climax is riddled with clichés and cheese, with toe-curling howlers aplenty, and what little there is of the story has no surprises, fun or tension, is very pedestrian in pace and fails to make sense or have signs of maturity. Tension and suspense are non-existent. 'Precious Cargo' goes overboard on the ridiculousness and lack of plausibility and at other points it takes itself too seriously. What there is of the action is clumsily choreographed and routine at best, too reliant on convenience too and with not much exciting or tense. The characters are not compelling or easy to get behind, too sketchily written and with character behaviours and traits that frustrate. Do not expect every character in every film to be likeable when characters in numerous films purposefully aren't, but it is an issue if there are characters meant to be rootable and 'Precious Cargo' has that problem.

Altogether, other than the opening scene a very bad film. 2/10 Bethany Cox

In Mississippi, the gangster Jack (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) is selling arms to a dangerous gang and is betrayed but saved by his partner and friend Logan (Jenna B. Kelly), who is a great sniper. Then Jack meets his girlfriend, the veterinarian Jenna (Lydia Hull), who believes he is a businessman that loves dogs. While making love with Jenna, they are surprised by Jack's former girlfriend Karen (Claire Forlani), who is a manipulative thief and is pregnant. She explains that she had double-crossed the powerful crime boss Eddie Pilosa (Bruce Willis) in a heist, and she needs to pay twelve million dollars to him. Otherwise she will be hunted down by Eddie's gang. Jack learns that he is the father of Karen's baby and still has feelings for Karen, and decides to rob a cargo of precious gems with his crew to help her. But soon he learns that he is involved in a network of betrayals.

"Precious Cargo" is a flawed and full of clichés action movie with a funny story of betrayals. The clichés and flaws are part of the funny side of the story. For example, there is no police or people working in the harbor. If the viewer watches this film without reading the bad reviews and with low expectations, he or she may be surprised with an entertaining film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Carga Preciosa" ("Precious Cargo")

This movie was intended to be a total action flick. There are some good action scenes however the acting by the cast were really sad. Mark - Paul being the lead hero was trying hard to be funny whenever the scene came up to it. And model Jenna really was so annoying trying to play a bad ass chick. She really didn't live up to the role and I guess really needs to stick to modeling or really needs to go to a decent acting school.There were scenes intending to be funny but because of the bad acting and cheap dialogs I was trying hard to even get the joke!Every other cast member is forgettable. Besides Bruce Willis and Claire Forlani,everyone were pretending to act. The story-line could have been better even the ending was cheesy. Really a waste of time watching this movie.

Contrary to other reviewers I couldn't stop watching this film once I started. A real gem. Really enjoyed the character developement over the course of the film and all the hollywood formulas and cliches carried out so beautifully straight up and in the best of humour. Has the makings of a cult film. I was left so uplifted and wishing I could watch a sequel.

because of the low rating, then i watched this movie with low expectation.. And i was surprised with the low rating because i think this movie is not bad and full of action from the beginning until the end.. it's not as great as "Die Hard", but worth to see... Just dun expect too high and you will enjoy this movie..

This proves Hollywood has no imagination, It was nice to see Mark Paul Gosselaar but this movie has been done 10 million times before and with a much better supporting cast, writers and videographers!

There should be a Rule. If an "Actor" appears on the Cover of a Video, He or She has to Appear in more than Five Minutes of Screen Time. Bruce Willis, in another Poster Paycheck Role might just make that cut in this Overly Slick DTV, but Barely.

The other "Actors" in this Badly Written and Conceived Movie seem to be as Disinterested as Willis. Striking Goofy Tough Guy and Gal Poses Delivering Lame Lines and Trying to Look Pretty, makes this a Cringe Inducer and an Embarrassment to all concerned.

It's one of those that's Played as Tongue-in-Cheek to make it all seem Forgivable Fun and the Bottom of the Barrell is the End Credits where it Presents Side-Bar Hilarity with Characters that didn't have Enough Charisma to warrant Caring about in the Previous 90 Minutes.

It's Forgettable Gloss, Painted with Bright Colors, Little Suspense, and the Gun Battles and Chases are Ridiculous. Half of the Wasted Budget must have been Spent on Bullets coming from Guns Fired by People that are Firing Range Deficient.

A Movie so Thin that can only be Tolerated by the Lowest-Common-Denominator Fan that asks nothing of a Film and that's Exactly what They Get with this one. Nothing. Bruce Willis has become a Deceiving Decadent Whore.

This rancid, festering carcass of a movie--for lack of a better word--was put together by 25 PRODUCERS??? 25??? They should have spent less money on producers and more on writers. Or directors. Or ANYONE who knew what they were doing.

There's nothing I can say about this . . . thing . . . that hasn't been said already. I watched it for about 15 minutes and decided to pop it out and watch a real, honest-to-goodness, professional, well-written, intelligently acted, solidly produced film by comparison--so I put in "Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol".

It was WAY better.

Firstly, Bruce Willis is used for the draw as it's really not his movie, it's Mark-Paul Gosselaar's. Other than the ridiculous amount of totally unnecessary f-bombs which I find detract from any movie, this is a very good action movie with lots of twists and turns. The lead is very likable and you root for him. His team is good also and the queen b of the movie is really detestable. Love the ending. I have no idea why the bad ratings and in all honesty, anything below a 4 for this film is probably because there were no Marvel Superheroes in it or the usual propaganda. It's just an action movie...no politics, no high aspirations...just relax and put your brain on enjoy mode.

Precious Cargo? The only thing precious about this cargo is the scene where Willis, with all his antagonistic mannerisms (hint: the same as all his other performances), discusses the rules of chess as if he's a conniving version of Bobby Fischer. "The pawn can only move forward, and attack diagonally". Oh my lord! Never played chess? Watch this film. You'll be a professional by the end! Wanted to watch an action film? Move along. This diamond robbery felt less exciting than extracting the sedimentary beast that is coal from the Earth's surface.

I don't need to explain the plot. I summed it up just now. A gang of thieves, recruited by the kindest crime boss ever, attempt to steal some diamonds. This is why I despise watching "straight-to-DVD" disposable trash. False advertising. Y'see Willis there on the poster? No no, not the other guy who is apparently the lead actor and presented smaller in the marketing material. You got him? Great. Well, Willis is in it for a total of five minutes. Frickin' five minutes. I wanted/hoped for some wild Willis warfare. What I received was some garish Gosselaar garbage, strung together by the most frequent quick cuts to ensure that you are unable to see any of the "absolutely exciting" action.

After the eternally elongated introductory credits, honestly resembled a marathon, the first big action set piece is a boat chase down a river. Possibly 1,693 bullets were blindly discharged within this five minute sequence. I've never known so much blind fire in all my life! A "pregnant" woman is firing mid-conversation without looking! If she had actually used her frickin' eyes, the scene would've been over before they managed to get onto the boat! God damn. No one can shoot for toffee, making every action scene tediously stupid.

Every character is mean spirited, calling each other "d*ck breath", "manipulative b*tch" and every other expletive under the sun. Relax! Y'all supposed to be working together. Kelly, who plays Logan, only has one tone. Tone deaf. Just her speech alone forced me to combat general fatigue. Gosselaar was fine, if occasionally irritating. Forlani was the highlight, without a doubt.

There's perhaps one, just one, scene with these actors together where some acting is present (and a door is unexpectedly slapped). The rest? I'd rather shoot myself. Willis didn't care. The plot is more generic than a manufactured pop song. The editing is borderline mentally deranged. I mean, one minute two characters are making sweet sweet love in the middle of the night. They're interrupted. They get out of bed and holy floppy wangs it's the middle of the day!? What illusory magic is this? I want some. No wait, I don't! Straight-to-DVD? Straight-to-the-rubbish-bin-mate.

A lot has been said and written about this film, mostly about its troubled production - forget all that: it has no meaning whatsoever for the experience this film provides. A word of advice though: if you go in expecting a testosterone-fueled revenge thriller in the vein of 'Die Hard', you'll likely end up disappointed. It's simply not that kind of film - but that doesn't mean you won't enjoy it if you watch it with the right expectations. 'Precious Cargo' opens with a standoff for the ages; we see snippets of memories showing a peaceful life - and soon the loss of that peace, and the loss of life. The images change and we hear the soothing sound of shooting blanks as we follow the camera via a long tracking shot over a seaside crime scene; it's an image that seems to imply peace, evoking nature's beauty with an almost meditative quality - before the barrel of a rifle appears in the frame. Those first three minutes I just described (which are the only spoilers you will get in this review) set the tone for the film perfectly. It's a film that tells a story of harrowing circumstances through images that are breathtakingly beautiful; a film about survival and death and shocking acts of sudden violence - and yet a film that, despite all its visceral intensity, also has a quiet, immersive quality to it that feels almost hypnotic.

Many critics and reviewers have pointed out the stark contrast between the film's poetic beauty and the ugliness of its violence - implying the director wanted to use this contrast to make a certain point regarding mankind's interference with nature. While that would seem pretty obvious (and it probably is at least partly true), I left the film feeling the director had shown a vaster, far too complete image of the clash between Zack Morris and the seedy crime underworld to justify such a simplistic interpretation of the events portrayed on screen.

Whether intentionally or not, the filmmakers shows the star of his film with a complexity and honesty that we normally don't get to see in these kinds of stories. And I'm not talking about Mark-Paul Gosslear here (who gives a no-holds-barred, crazy good performance and I'd love to see him win an Oscar for this film) - the star of this film is not a person: it IS the tits on the scene with the dumb blondes, plain and simple.

The revenge plot - which felt almost like an afterthought or a ploy to give the film a certain structure and a proper ending - is not really the film's main theme or strongest aspect, and it certainly isn't the reason that made this film so compelling to watch for me. Such stories have been told often enough - and often better - than in 'Precious Cargo'. No, what really made this film stand out for me is that I have NEVER seen a Hollywood film (any film, really - apart from documentaries) that showed speedboats in such an unflinchingly honest and mesmerizing way as was the case here. And the way I perceive it, the director sees his human protagonists as being very much a part of waterside existence as a whole - regardless of their destructive behaviour.

It's that refreshingly wholistic approach (which some viewers might perceive as nihilism on the director's part) that I found to be the film's biggest accomplishment: it depicts the people in this story as just another species trying to survive in that perilous frontier-world. The emphasis is not really on the moral aspects of the brutal injustice that the main character suffers or how the beachgoers are cruelly exploited; we witness all that - but Iñarritu keeps a certain emotional distance, as if he were shooting a documentary about predatory wildlife. And just like the boat attack, most of the violence in this film comes as a reaction of defense. Be it self-defense, defending one's offspring or defending territory and valuable resources. Even the character that comes closest to an actual villain is driven by fear - not hate, and his most obvious character defects were caused by a very traumatizing experience. As in seaside settings, there is a simple (if often brutal) logic to why most characters, men or beasts, act the way they do in 'Precious Cargo' (OK, maybe not the bimbos - but I didn't say the film was perfect, did I). And the boat attack was the most realistic depiction of a water-based attack I have ever seen on film.

All in all, this film felt less like a story of revenge and more like an ode to the visceral beauty of nature and the relentless, savage force that is life; it provides an immensely absorbing - and touching - experience to those who have an affinity for the wilderness, but it's also a visual masterpiece and a great piece of old-school filmmaking for lovers of Cinema. It's not perfect (especially during the last third of the film where I felt the pacing was a bit off), but it's a film the likes of which we will only rarely get to see - if at all - in the future. 'Precious Cargo' is visual poetry of the most primal kind, and it should be seen on the biggest screen possible.

Oh wait. I'm mixing this up with The Revenant. Yeah this film was kind of bad.

Kelly need a lot of voice coaching, mostly to slow down, because she doesn't carry off 'thoughtful' well enough for the part. (Common Canadian acting problems - bovine energy) Kelly and Hull roles would have been better reversed. Willis hasn't brought energy to a role in years, and you see it in his private life as well. He needs the humor and edge to carry off the seriousness and he's settled into this retired state of mind that's projected dead on the screen. Forliani does her job well and she continues to carry the screen. Never thought she'd keep getting better. Pacing is wrong. Director should have slowed them all down. It's noir dialog filmed at summer blockbuster pace.