Review of "End of the Road": A Road to Hokey Hillbilly Hell
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Author/Atul K Rawat
"Nobody plays a prank on my family! One of the instances in this Netflix thriller where the blatant use of unadulterated cliché achieves an effect that is more comedic than intended is when Queen Latifah yells, "shoot them!" while shooting a handgun at the bad guys in a pivotal scene from "End of the Road.
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Millicent Shelton's slick but ridiculous film loses its social critique edge by depicting an African American family's cross-country journey in cartoonishly broad terms, endangering them with crazy and/or criminal "crackers" at every turn. This is a quick route from the ordinary to the preposterous.
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With a formulaic, manufactured screenplay, the director and performers do their best — well, maybe not their best, but their competent professional duty.
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The outcomes, though, do no one any favours; they are more akin to overripe cheese than taut tension or even guilty-pleasure territory. On September 9, "End" debuts on the streamer.
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As some of them prepare to leave the only home some of them have ever known, the Freemans—a name choice that suggests the script's heavy hand—are introduced. Brenda (Latifah) can no longer afford to live in their lavish Southern California home after her husband passed away from cancer.
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The idea of going to Houston, where their grandmother lives, upsets teenager Kelly (Mychala Faith Lee) and preteen Cameron (Shaun Dixon), who are already suffering the loss of their father.
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While being coaxed off the boyfriend she's leaving behind, Kelly kindly informs Mom, "Just so you know, you're ruining my life.
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" Brenda's bumbling ne'er-do-well brother Reggie shares driving duties on the long journey (Chris Bridges, aka Ludacris).
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The projected three-day journey would be challenging enough considering the competitive nature of this quartet.
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And Kelly gives two leering young yokels (Jasper Keen, Micah McNeil), who go unnamed but could just as easily be called Cletus and Jethro, the well-deserved middle finger at a gas station, putting the big, broad, very Caucasian hinterlands on the wrong foot. They pursue the Freemans through a lonely desert road, briefly scaring them.
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