Title: Intensive Care
Rating: NR
Director: Jared Bentley
Starring: Tara Macken, Jai Rodriguez, Kevin Sizemore
Runtime: 1 hr 20 mins

What It Is: An ex-Special Ops agent becomes both the protector and good girl gone bad as she fends off an elderly woman’s home from three intruders who are after her money which is locked inside a safe. What should have been an in and out job has turned into a fight for their lives.

What We Think: This is one of those films where the concept is really strong but the execution is a little hard to stand behind. One prominent issue is the main character has zero character development over the course of the film. Once a Special Ops agent always a Special Ops agents and while Macken’s character is set up to be shaken by an incident that occurs during her time as an agent, there is no apparent struggle with it on screen. It was also difficult to categorize this film. It’s apparent that this is an action film, but it struggled with portraying as either a thriller or a comedy. Was I supposed to be on the edge of my seat or laughing at the dialogue?

However, there were a handful of things this did really well. First and foremost is the female Asian lead. Often when the main characters are of color we categorize the type of movie based on ethnicity. This is not an Asian film, this is a film with an Asian lead and that is quality diversity. While some of the fight scenes were corny, overall the choreography was enticing. There may have been too many fight scenes though. The number of times Macken’s character was close to defeating the bad guys only to have them come back to life was unnecessary. A lot of annoying dumb luck on the bad guys part. As one becomes invested in the film, the almost ending will take you by surprise. With that said, unless you are a Marvel film, post-credit conclusions or cliffhangers should be off limits.

Our Grade: B-, By no means is this a bad film, in fact, it’s cohesive and enticing. The runtime is fitting to the storyline, unfortunately, it just became too cat and mouse-like at a certain point. A couple of what seem to be out of place actions here and there and a leader who may or may not have been a bad guy themselves, well, the film had some storytelling struggles. But it’s a short action-packed film that definitely deserves a chance.