Mixing comedy with any other genre requires a lot of talent. In a comedy-drama, for instance, you risk undermining the emotions by leaving the audience only in stitches. In a horror comedy, bad direction can end up spoiling both the humor and the scares. Still, in The Shakedown, Ari Kruger takes the risk of combining comedy with two genres - drama and crime - and the results are wildly unstable. There are flashes of fun in this production, but Kruger isn't able to offer a satisfying experience. The movie's flaws stick out like a sore thumb, and it becomes embarrassing to watch when it decides to become all sentimental. Let's just say that dramatic beats aren't Kruger's biggest strength. He is better when he is busy evoking chuckles from the audience. Some of his jokes are unpredictable, perfectly timed, and executed. When a man hits a patient with a hammer, you don't expect THAT reaction. And I was pleasantly amused by a wallet consisting of "Fuck You" cards and papers. Kruger, at his best, hits you with jokes that leave you surprised as well as tickled. His most hilarious creation, however, has to be Marika (Berenice Barbier), Justin's (Carl Beukes) mistress. Barbier provides an exhilarating vigor to the Dumb Blonde character. She doesn't speak a single word without moving all her muscles. "I keep my heart on my sleeve," Marika says while raising her arms in the air. Whenever Marika is on the screen, there is a wide smile on your face. I haven't enjoyed watching a comic character this much in quite a while. It's sad, then, that Kruger doesn't give Marika more screen time. The Shakedown needed more of her and less of Justin and Dovi (Emmanuel Castis), his brother.
To keep her affair with Justin a secret, Marika blackmails the insurance broker to give her one million rand. Justin withdraws the money but doesn't give her the bag full of cash. This turns out to be his first mistake. To intimidate Marika, Justin asks for Dovi's help, who assigns two men for the job who, of course, end up confronting the wrong woman. Justin's second mistake is this: He doesn't give Marika's photo to his brother, and what's weird is that Dovi doesn't even ask for the picture. Only the address is provided, which Dovi doesn't hear correctly, leading to all the confusion. What a stupid mistake. This stupidity is part of Kruger and Daniel Zimbler's calculated screenplay. Sure, the gears of a movie like this are moved in a particular way to arrive at a predetermined end, but a clever filmmaker makes the contrivances feel organic or enjoyable. Some directors choose to set a story like this in the past to remove technology from the equation so that we don't raise questions like, "Why was the photo not provided?" Kruger, though, cannot remove the stench of plot convenience. For him, The Shakedown becomes an exercise in treating his characters as puppets. The strings are extremely visible, so the pleasures of the crime portions are obliterated. The drama, too, comes across as weak - it's unnecessarily sugar-coated. Justin's relationship with Dovi is strained. The issue is solved through a revelation, giving rise to a terrible "love your family" sentiment.
The comedy aspect is still decent, and Kruger should have stuck to this single track. He concentrates more on Dovi and Justin, and this thread turns out to be crummy, especially when you detect more promise in Barbier and Julia Anastasopoulos's characters. As Justin's wife Natalie, Anastasopoulos lights up your mood through simple actions like a scream or just words like "What the fuck!" There comes both sensuality and humor in her life when she decides to order an Antonio Banderas sex doll. Kruger relegates Marika and Natalie to the sidelines, which is unfortunate because their lives look more appealing than those of Dovi and Justin. The women, in fact, have a more engaging presence than all the men. The best events in The Shakedown seem to be unfolding away from Justin's eyes. Kruger, alas, focuses on the least interesting things.
Final Score- [4.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times