LOCKED
(director: David Yarovesky; screenwriters: Michael Arlen Ross, Mariano Cohn & Gaston Duprat based on source material from the film 4×4; cinematographer: Michael Dallatorre; editors: Andrew Buckland, Peter Gvozdas; music: Tim Williams; cast: Bill Skarsgard (Eddie Barrish), Ashley Cartwright (Sara), Anthony Hopkins (William), Michael Eklund (Karl), David Charkhi (Butter), Gabrielle Walsh (Amy); Runtime: 95; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Sam Raimi, Zainab Azizi, Ara Keshishian; Michael Eklund, Navid Charkhi, Gabrielle Walsh; The Avenue/ZQ Entertainment/Longevity Pictures; 2025)
“Makes for a twisted car commercial for an anti-theft device.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A remake of the 2019 class-warfare Argentina film “4 x 4” by Mariano Cohn & Gaston Duprat is a bummer. It was filmed in British Columbia, subbing for NYC. It’s directed by David Yarovesky, who keeps it low-brow, annoying and silly. It’s written without wit or purpose by Michael Arlen Ross.
Its target comical audience might be those needing to laugh at some else’s misfortune to feel good.
A deadbeat, ex-con, petty theft, divorced, broke father, Eddie Barrish (Bill Skarsgard), needs car repairs before he can pick up his beloved daughter (Ashley Cartwright) from school. With not enough money to pay for repairs, he leaves the car in the shop with his mechanic (Michael Eklund) after bringing it in. He then steals from an isolated NYC parking lot a tinted-window Dolus SUV (a fictional luxury vehicle) left unlocked but automatically locks and won’t open when he gets inside and a computer system turns on the commands from the whiny-voiced owner on a phone, who custom designed the car. Eddie finds himself trapped inside the SUV of the sadistic, billionaire, right-wing car owner William (Anthony Hopkins), who tases him when he fails to respond. William is doing this foul deed because he’s embittered over his daughter’s recent murder by street thugs, that he has cancer and as a protest that America’s youth no longer want to work hard.
This entrapment routine, which feels as mean-spirited as one of Hannity’s anti-liberal news riffs on Fox, goes on for a week. The slight story never improves, as its unpleasantness only worsens.
It’s a lousy idea for a film, but makes for a twisted car commercial for an anti-theft device.
REVIEWED ON 3/24/2025 GRADE: C
dennisschwartzreviews.com