(I could have written 12 steps, but I don't care enough about this movie to give it that much effort.)
1. Make the movie too long. This runs 1h54m and should have clocked in at 1h30m.
2. Blow the main plot device. With any ransom scheme, the tricky bit is the exchange. How can you get the money without being caught? This film made no attempt to address that point and went with the old "we both show up at the same place and swap the hostage for the money." Very stupid. This should have been the centerpiece for the film and it was a botched job.
3. Go from 0-60, not the reverse. The movie began well enough, especially for a Liam Neesom film, which these days are in a stiff stupidity competition with those of Nic Cage.
4. Throw in Bible verse or some other tripe. Believe it or not, this was the first time I ever heard the 12 Steps. Man, what a load of rubbish! I'm a life-long atheist, so I guess I just need to man-up and do it on my own, if I were an alcoholic. I love booze, but I'm not a screw up about it.
Here are the real 12 Steps:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
They left out the most important step, step 13:
Stop praying and think of a better ending.
1. Make the movie too long. This runs 1h54m and should have clocked in at 1h30m.
2. Blow the main plot device. With any ransom scheme, the tricky bit is the exchange. How can you get the money without being caught? This film made no attempt to address that point and went with the old "we both show up at the same place and swap the hostage for the money." Very stupid. This should have been the centerpiece for the film and it was a botched job.
3. Go from 0-60, not the reverse. The movie began well enough, especially for a Liam Neesom film, which these days are in a stiff stupidity competition with those of Nic Cage.
4. Throw in Bible verse or some other tripe. Believe it or not, this was the first time I ever heard the 12 Steps. Man, what a load of rubbish! I'm a life-long atheist, so I guess I just need to man-up and do it on my own, if I were an alcoholic. I love booze, but I'm not a screw up about it.
Here are the real 12 Steps:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
They left out the most important step, step 13:
Stop praying and think of a better ending.