Netflix Action Thriller ‘End of the Road’ is a Slow, Cliché-Ridden Ride

Sommerleigh Pollonais, Senior Writer

Plot: In this high-octane action thriller, a cross-country road trip becomes a highway to hell for Brenda and her family. Alone in the New Mexico desert, they have to fight for their lives when they become the targets of a mysterious killer.

ALTHOUGH WE’VE COME! TO THE END OF THE ROOAAAD! Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. And for those of you that are too young to get that reference go Google Boyz II Men. Now that we have that out of the way let’s talk about the not awful but nowhere NEAR entertaining Netflix movie, End of the Road.

Look, when it comes to straight to streaming movies, I never get my hopes up too high. But to be honest this year has been pretty decent when it comes to action thriller movies popping up on our smaller screens. And with Queen Latifah (the television version of The Equalizer is actually pretty good) and Ludacris (all the Fast and Furious-es) in the lead roles as sister and brother Brenda and Reggie, I figured it would at least be good for a few laughs and maybe an easy-to-digest thriller (those are always fun for me). So why not right? Well, simply put, this movie was an exercise in mediocrity from beginning to end and even the talented Beau Bridges (Homeland, The Fabulous Baker Boys) hamming it up as the cop who may or may not be dirty (*sigh*) can’t save this nothing movie from itself.

If there’s any aspect of this story that works, it’s the familial relationship between Luda and Latifiah. These two do come across like siblings and, even though their energy levels never seem to get pass third gear, I did find their interactions with each other and Brenda’s kids to be likeable.

This white folks think I’m playing. It’s time to *Equalize* things up here

Everything else is a cliché inside of another cliché. Racism aside (stick with me now) we all know in the real world there are more than a few arrogant asshats running around who somehow think the colour of their skin instantly makes them more valuable as a human being than someone else, so I’m not saying it’s unbelievable that a black family travelling cross country America isn’t going to come across these troglodytes at some point. But what I am saying is it would’ve been more interesting if at least one group of these people weren’t wannabe Nazis; maybe shake things up a bit?

Every single frame of End of the Road is predictable which I could forgive if the pacing of the story didn’t feel like I was standing in line at the grocery store on double-points day. There’s a fun way to do road-trip thrillers people (Breakdown, Joy Ride, Kalifornia) and this (forgive my bad grammar) ain’t it.

Score: 4.5 out of 10

Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes.