You know when you’re just looking for a film to watch in a short space of time because you have shit to do? That was End of the Road for me. I wasn’t desperate to watch it, nor did I even know of its existence until I scrolled past it on Netflix. I simply saw ’89 minutes’ and ‘Queen Latifah‘ and thought “yep, that’s the one”. So how did it fare?
The film follows a pretty basic plot line in which a recently widowed mother of two named Brenda (Queen Latifah) has lost all of her money to her deceased husband’s chemotherapy and cancer treatment. As a result, she’s forced to uproot her entire life, taking her kids and her cousin (played by Ludacris) to Texas in search of a better – and presumably cheaper – life. On the road trip to said new place however, things become increasingly sinister as the family are first pulled over by a pair of Neanderthals and then once again when they stumble upon a mysterious bag full of cash in a roadside motel.
Now I love Queen Latifah as much as the next lesbian, but someone really needs to start giving her roles that are worthy of her talent. The disrespect on show here is truly laughable. Even her star power isn’t able to save this one.
Don’t be fooled, End of the Road isn’t the worst movie you’ll ever see. It actually starts off pretty well, with some really simple yet effectively tense scenes involving the aforementioned malicious rednecks. However, there are so many plot holes that it becomes a convoluted, over-the-top mess real quick. For one, there’s a pretty serious stab wound involving scissors that gets forgotten about immediately. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s not something you’d forget about within an hour of it happening, is it?
Usually, I’m all for a 90 minute, super fast-paced movie. In fact, that was one of the main draws for me in the first place. But in this case, there was too much storyline to fit into in such a short space of time. Because everything feels so rushed, the only reason you’ll actually care about any of the characters is because they’re played by Queen Latifah and Ludacris, and not because the film is actually any good.
I will admit that I was pretty gripped by most of it, purely because I wanted to see what was going to happen next. Unfortunately, the majority of the film was so predictable that it was hard to squeeze an ounce of originality out of it. For example, it was abundantly clear who the real bad guy was going to be… but at least how he/she met their demise was satisfying albeit brief.
Overall, it’s not as if I’d recommend End of the Road to anyone, but in comparison to the majority of the fodder that exists on Netflix, it’s not exactly a waste of time. Plus who doesn’t want to watch the Queen and Beau Bridges act their pants off even despite a hectic script?
End of the Road is available to stream on Netflix in the UK.
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Overall Enjoyability Rating: ½
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