EASY DOES IT -- A Quirky but Safe Crime Comedy

Review by Sean Boelman

Inarguably the biggest draw of Will Addison’s crime comedy Easy Does It is the chance to see Terminator star Linda Hamilton give a performance as a ruthless Southern crime boss. And while the film does deliver on its promise of absurdity to a certain extent, it too often takes the easy route to be particularly memorable.

The movie follows two best friends as they set out on a cross-country road trip in the hopes of making a big score and repaying their debt, accidentally picking up a hostage along the way and becoming notorious criminals. In a way, the film plays out like a far less intelligent classic crime tale, almost a “Clyde and Clyde”, but with characters that are stupid.

Perhaps the movie’s biggest success is in making the audience connect with the characters as two lovable goofs. Despite the fact that they are unquestionably brainless, this best friend duo is so ridiculous that one can’t help but root for them, even if it’s clear that they will keep getting themselves into more and more trouble.

Ben Matheny (who co-wrote the film) and Matthew Martinez have excellent chemistry together as the two leads, able to bounce lines off of each other wonderfully. It will be easy to buy into the friendship that serves as the main driving force of the movie thanks to the believability that their performances lend to the relationship.

That said, the film does get a bit repetitive in nature, and as a result, can drag at times. Even though the movie clocks in at right around ninety-five minutes, a lot of the best moments come either quite early or quite late. The rest of the film feels like filler that tries to recreate what worked earlier, but ends up feeling dull. 

Thematically, the movie is a bit all over the place, but the most interesting things that it has to say are about consequences. Seemingly small decisions that the characters make in a scene towards the beginning of the story come back in later portions, showing both how thought-out the narrative is and what Addison and Matheny hope to say with it.

On the other hand, the unevenness in regards to the film’s visual style doesn’t often work. There are quite a few unnecessary zooms that attempt to artificially add a sense of energy to the narrative but end up being annoying instead. Other efforts at stylistic flair fall completely flat, like a scene that plays around with the color scheme. 

Easy Does It has some entertaining moments and interesting ideas, but it doesn’t always come together into a cohesive whole. Still, those great portions make it worth watching as a distraction for an hour and a half.

Easy Does It is now available on VOD.

​Rating: 3/5