Cash Out review
Cash Out is essentially a completely out of his luck, poor man’s version of Inside Man. John Travolta has the credibility to capably stand-in for Clive Owen, but the understudy to the understudy of Denzel Washington never walks on screen.
Travolta plays Mason, a skilled thief who’s put together one masterful final score. His team, including his brother Shawn (Lukas Haas), tech expert Link (Natali Yura) and gunmen Anton (Quavo) and Hector (Noel Guglielmi), skillfully pull off the heist. Only problem is Mason’s most trusted squad member, Amelia (Kristin Davis), is a federal agent who’s been deep undercover.
Through incredibly inexplicable means, Mason and the crew escape federal custody. They lay low until Shawn has a score that could set the team up for years. Mason doesn’t want in but gets dragged along to stop Shawn from screwing it up, which of course he still manages to accomplish.
The score was a trap set up by the feds. Now Mason and his crew must figure out an escape from a bank without getting caught or harming any of their hostages. And just to make things interesting, Amelia is the negotiator brought in to help diffuse the situation.
That allows screenwriters Dipo Oseni and Doug Richardson (Money Train) to have some playful, flirty banter with Mason and Amelia. Travolta and Davis do a decent job of pulling it off, but it doesn’t get developed properly. Viewers are just asked to go along with the idea that Mason and Amelia have a deep love.
Despite knowing Shawn is a screw up, Mason assigns him the important task of watching the bank manager Georgios (Swen Temmel). In what clearly has to be a gag, Georgios is done up to look like Travolta’s Vincent Vega character from Pulp Fiction. Maybe the filmmakers have some cleverness after all?
While Shawn assumed there was a massive payday in a safety deposit box, it contains something much more valuable. Its contents are enough to place the hostages and Mason’s crew in jeopardy. That’s probably more dramatic than the reality, which plays this potentially tense, adrenaline rush premise into a lazy Sunday stroll.
Director Ives just isn’t able to tap into a sense of urgency. Mason is so cucumber cool it seems like a foregone conclusion that everything is going to work out just fine. Even with no prep work and time to come up with a working strategy.
This is a key problem with the script. For as competent as Mason’s plan is in the opening act, they do some stupid things for this heist. Even with little things like using their real names and don’t even bother wearing masks or any type of disguise. The script makes it seem like they’ve planned this after watching a YouTube.
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Ironically, the lack of money is quickly apparent during the numerous action scenes throughout Cash Out.
In the opening sequence, Ives sets up a chase scene where the crew is pursued by police cars. Ives doesn’t have the budget or CGI wizardry to place CGI cars blocking the path.
Instead, he places random vehicles that are clearly not cop cars somewhat in the road with enough space to avoid major collisions or expense explosions. It’s a case where maybe not setting up a big chase would have been preferrable to shooting such an underwhelming one.
Ives is under the mistaken impression that constant sweeping camera shots during heist and chase sequences somehow equal thrilling action scenes. This wouldn’t be such a frustrating staple of the action scene if Ives didn’t lean on this crutch for every sequence. It’s OK the first time with drastically diminishing — and disorienting — results every other occasion.
Cash Out is hanging in the low rent district of action thrillers, but Travolta didn’t get the message. He delivers a better than necessary performance and keeps the film largely engaging. It’s very light fare, Ives’ action direction is messy at best, but Cash Out is watchable enough to pass the time.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Photo Credit: Saban Films