Synopsis
Two policemen, one an old-timer, the other his volatile younger partner, find themselves suspended when a video of their strong-arm tactics becomes the media's cause du jour. Low on cash and with no other options, these two embittered soldiers descend into the criminal underworld to gain their just due, but instead find far more than they wanted awaiting them in the shadows.
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Cast
- Mel GibsonBrett Ridgeman
- Vince VaughnAnthony Lurasetti
- Tory KittlesHenry Johns
- Michael Jai White'Biscuit'
- Jennifer CarpenterKelly Summer
- Don JohnsonChief Lt. Calvert
- Laurie HoldenMelanie Ridgeman
- Fred MelamedMr. Edmington
- Udo KierFriedrich
- Tattiawna JonesDenise
Recommendations
- 83
IndieWire
Dragged Across Concrete may be a hard movie to love, but it’s a much harder one not to respect and even admire. - 70
Variety
At a whopping 158 minutes, “Concrete’s” sleek, languorous anatomy of a heist represents the filmmaker’s most extreme exercise yet in painstaking genre deceleration, sparked as ever by the tangy movie-movie vernacular of his writing, the crunchy metal-on-asphalt dynamism of his craftsmanship, and the back-from-the-brink reanimation of his stars. - 67
The Film Stage
Where the new entry lacks in bloodshed and bone-splintering violence, it still confirms Zahler’s penchant for complicated characters, and conjures up a bad cops action movie which, despite blips in tension and a second half far superior to the first, crystallizes Zahler’s as a key name to watch for lovers of the genre. - 63
Washington Post
Dragged Across Concrete may not be the kind of movie you’d expect to emerge from such inspiration, yet the impassioned energy of those composers is echoed in Zahler’s feverish yet stubbornly patient approach to storytelling. - 60
The Guardian
Zahler has a way with action, and the set pieces are inventive and nasty, with an unflinching eye for violence. Such style and confidence is impressive. But after three movies, his increasingly morose characters’ world-weariness is becoming wearying in itself; a little more light and shade here and there would easily take this cult director to the next level. That is, if he wants to go. - 60
Screen Daily
Anyone expecting a progression in Zahler’s work may be disappointed, as the amusingly mannered dialogue starts to feel self-conscious and forced, as does the fatalism. - 60
The Telegraph
Even when the heist gets underway, the film takes its time about everything: what Zahler has essentially done is put a 15-minute mid-blockbuster set-piece on the rack and stretched it out until its cartilage pops. The duration is part of the point – you can’t do gnawing fatalism in a hurry – but the repetitions and languors here can feel presumptuous. - 60
Film Threat
This film barely gets a recommendation only because it finally gets interesting at the end.
