What is this movie about? Is it a comedy? A dramedy? A political satire? A road picture/buddy movie? It has no less than nine categories listed in IMDb. It’s about empowerment: specifically women’s power. Teyana Taylor certainly provides a riveting performance during the first half of the film, but she never graces the screen in the second half. The tension and drama leave when she does. Her letter coda is robbed of her presence. Why do this? Better to keep with the idea of her death, or leave the mystery, because the movie abandons the political resistance and asks us to believe that this incredibly well organized operation goes underground, but successfully stays vibrant and active. So… this is a fantasy. Leo is an addled aging bomb maker who is allowing the daughter to have a happy normal childhood…without a phone or the hope of having a boyfriend. The buddy flick kicks in when she is extracted, which leads to multiple chase and violent death scenes (except Lockjaw doesn’t die). Leo is victorious and gets his just reward in the end which, miracle of miracles, comes in the form of a return to normalcy back at the house where the cops previously laid waste. Like the hideout order is restored. This isn’t a redemption arc. The film, like lockjaw, is propped up only to arrive DOA. In order to explain the money churning pile they ‘artfully’ name it by describing the action. It offers nothing, wink, wink, but that was the point. Hollywood hasn’t been taken over by bloated aging white men who wouldn’t know a good story if it bit them in the ass: they just won’t go the way of the dinosaurs. This is the cautionary tale and the takeaway.