The Bag Man

The Bag Man
File:The Bag Man.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	David Grovic
Produced by	Peter D. Graves Warren Ostergard
Written by	David Grovic Paul Conway
Starring	John Cusack Rebecca Da Costa Robert De Niro Crispin Glover Dominic Purcell
Music by	Tony Morales Edward Rogers
Cinematography	Steve Mason
Edited by	Devin Maurer Michael R. Miller
Production company	Cinedigm Red Granite Pictures TinRes Entertainment
Distributed by	Cinedigm Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Release dates	February 28, 2014 (2014-02-28)
Running time	108 minutes
Country	The Bahamas United States
Language	English
Box office	$461,780

The Bag Man (also known as Motel in some countries) is a 2014 thriller film directed by David Grovic. It is based on an original screenplay by James Russo and a rewrite by David Grovic and Paul Conway and an inspiration of The Cat: A Tale of Feminine Redemption by Marie-Louise von Franz. The film stars John Cusack, Rebecca Da Costa, Crispin Glover, Dominic Purcell, and Robert De Niro. The film premiered on February 28, 2014, in New York and Los Angeles.

Plot

Brutal gangster Dragna recruits professional killer Jack to pick up a bag and wait for his arrival at a motel. Dragna stresses that Jack is not to open the bag or allow anyone to view its contents under any circumstances. Confused as to why Dragna wants him to do such an apparently easy job, Jack presses for more details, but Dragna only reiterates the rules. While Jack acquires the bag, Dragna's henchman shoots him in the hand, and Jack stuffs the body in his car's trunk. Dragna is unsympathetic when Jack calls him and instructs Jack to stick to the plan.

At the motel, Jack meets several people: Ned, the wheelchair-bound desk clerk; Rivka, a tall hooker; and Lizard and Guano, a pair of pimps. Jack requests room number thirteen, and Ned cautions him that it is a deathtrap, as it is unconnected. When two suited men become curious about Jack, he abruptly breaks into their room and kills both. A subsequent search reveals FBI badges and a briefcase. Jack sets the briefcase aside and leaves to dump the corpse stored in his car. He returns once he is spotted, only to discover that Rivka has broken into his room; fearful that Lizard will kill her, she requests that he allow her to stay.

Jack initially demands that she leave, then detains her when he can not be sure whether she opened the bag. Rivka points out that the briefcase contains a picture of the bag, and Jack becomes worried that others may attempt to acquire it. Lizard and Guano question Jack about Rivka; later, they attack him when he attempts to drive her to a bus station. On their corpses, he finds another picture of the bag, and Rivka spots the corpse in the back of his car. Unsure what to do with Rivka and what her involvement is, he returns to the hotel with her to await Dragna's return.

Ned becomes suspicious that Jack has a guest in his room, and he calls the sheriff when Jack refuses to pay the double occupancy fee. Sheriff Larson briefly questions Jack, and, after Larson leaves, Jack threatens Ned. Increasingly worried about the safety of the bag, Jack buries it near the motel, only to be caught by Ned, who is now out of his wheelchair. Jack kills Ned and returns to the motel, where Larson arrests him under suspicion of Ned's disappearance.

As Larson prepares to torture Jack for information, Rivka shows up. Larson threatens to rape her, but she overpowers a deputy and frees Jack, who then kills Larson. When Rivka demonstrates detailed knowledge of the bag, Jack becomes suspicious of her again, but she points out that she has saved his life. Somewhat mollified, he retrieves the bag and waits in room fourteen. Dragna finally appears, disappointed in Jack's apparent lack of trust. Nonetheless satisfied that Jack has not looked in the bag, Dragna explains that the whole situation was a test of Jack's skills and character, as he doubted Jack's resolve in the wake of Jack's fiancee's unsolved murder some months earlier. The motel and the local cops are all on Dragna's payroll, and were all (unwittingly) part of the test.

As Dragna prepares to leave, Rivka spontaneously tells Jack that she looked in the bag. Frustrated, Jack points out that Dragna will now kill them both. Jack dutifully reports Rivka's action to Dragna, who orders her killed. Jack instead kills Dragna's bodyguard, who wounds Rivka. Jack hunts down Dragna, and both are wounded. Jack looks in the bag--it contains the head of his fiancee, and Dragna had her killed to prevent Jack from wanting to quit the murder-for-hire business. Trying to persuade Jack to surrender, Dragna destroys the hotel (where Rivka supposedly is) with remote-detonated explosives. Moments later, Rivka appears and saves Jack by killing Dragna, but she is shot again. Later, in Dragna's lawyer's office, Rivka reveals herself as Dragna's mistress and personal assassin who was sent to the motel to ensure things went Dragna's way. She collects a five million dollar reward for Jack's assassination, and she and Jack drive off together.

Cast

• John Cusack as Jack
• Rebecca Da Costa as Rivka
• Robert De Niro as Dragna
• Crispin Glover as Ned
• Dominic Purcell as Larson
• Sticky Fingaz as Lizard
• Martin Klebba as Guano
• Theodus Crane as Goose
• David Shumbris as Pike
• Mike Mayhall as Deputy Jones
• Danny Cosmo as Bishop
• David Grovic as Dragna's lawyer

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 10% of 42 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 3.4/10. Metacritic rated it 28/100 based on 18 reviews. Scott Foundas of Variety called it "a tedious, self-consciously quirky postmodern noir". Stephen Farber of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "If it weren't for the touches of cruelty, this might have been a passable B-movie, but Bag Man ends up wasting the A-list talent caught up in the lurid exercise." Stephen Holden of The New York Times described the plot as "a protracted and increasingly tedious cat-and-mouse game" that "pathetically tries to build up expectations about what might be in the bag". Mike D'Angelo of The A.V. Club called it a Quentin Tarantino knockoff made two decades too late.

External links

• The Bag Man at IMDb
• The Bag Man at the TCM Movie Database