Criminal Activities

The funeral of a mutual friend offers four former classmates the prospect of the deal of a lifetime: thanks to an insider tip, Zach (Michael Pitt), Noah (Dan Stevens), Warren and Bryce want to make big money from 200,000 borrowed dollars on the stock market. A bad investment, as it soon turns out, which leaves them deep in debt to gangster Eddie (John Travolta). Now the four friends have to raise the money in the shortest possible time if they don't want to pay with their lives. And to do so, the young men embark on a highly dangerous kidnapping mission. US actor Jackie Earle Haley not only plays Eddie's most important henchman in “Criminal Activities”, but also makes his debut as a director. The result is a fast-paced gangster comedy in the Tarantino style, which beautifully disguises its deviously entertaining twists and turns and confidently draws on the guaranteed successes of its role models. "John Travolta gets Godfather-y in “Criminal Activities,” a spunky crime yarn in which he does fine work but is overshadowed by a guy who spends most of the film tied up in a chair. [...] Edi Gathegi is a chatty, foul-mouthed delight in that role as he tries to mess with the four amateur kidnappers’ heads. [...] It’s a film full of machismo (there is hardly a female character in sight), absurdist dialogue and hints of humor, and it owes as much to Quentin Tarantino as the four bunglers owe to Eddie. Yet it doesn’t feel like a mere imitation; it has too much wit and too many striking performances for that." (Neil Genzlinger, in: The New York Times)