MOVIE: Dragged Across Concrete

IF you’re Mel Gibson’s agent, you’re probably telling him the very last thing he should be considering is a film that touches on racist themes.

But we have the funny feeling that Gibson does what Gibson wants, and in this case, he chose wisely.

'Dragged Across Concrete' tells the hard hitting story of two US cops (played by Gibson and Vince Vaughn) who are caught on video using strong arm tactics against a latino gangster during a drugs bust. They are subsequently suspended, and when Gibson’s character, Brett, faces issues at home in the form of black youths threatening his daughter, he decides to take action, but thankfully, not in the way you may be thinking.

Brett convinces his partner that they’ve been hard done by, and deserve their share of the criminal pie so embark on a plan to “mug the mugger”.

As you can imagine, things quickly go off the rails and the two suspended buddies are soon in over their necks. The movie is expertly written and directed by S.Craig Zahler and superbly delivered by the two leads.

Say what you want about Gibson the man, he’s a hell of an actor, with Vaughn more than holding his own in the passenger seat. Those who think discussing racism is itself racist, will struggle to get past their own prejudices and enjoy this film, but we award it a review score of 4 gripping stars. 

Another film out this week which may offend for different reasons is Neil Jordan’s 'Greta'. The set up is a decent one, Frances (Chloe Grace Moretz) finds a handbag on the subway and tracks down the owner (Isabelle Huppert) only to quickly find out she’s dangerously deranged.

What follows unfortunately is a series of bizarre writing choices that will leave you scratching your head. Here are just some of the questions you will be asking: Why did she go back? Why didn’t she go out the front window? Why didn’t they just call the cops? Why did character A not recognise character B? And many many more. Avoid.

Paul O'Rourke