Quick Take: The Tax Collector (2020)

Director: David Ayer. Starring: Bobby Soto, Shia LaBeouf, George Lopez, Cinthya Carmona, Jose Conejo Martin. Release: VOD.

Veteran filmmaker and apparently gangsta-wannabe David Ayer follows up on his contributions to Training Day and Harsh Times with this L.A.-based Latino gang story.

David (Bobby Soto) is in charge of collecting taxes from the local gangs on behalf of an incarcerated boss, with his trusty - possibly psychotic - enforcer Creeper (Shia LaBeouf) by his side. One day a rival shows up to challenge David's boss and he gets caught in the middle.

You wouldn't think if was possible for a man of David Ayer's talents to create a film as trivial as this. This film has absolutely nothing to say, and certainly no interesting way of saying it. It's a painfully predictable parade of every lackluster direct-to-video gangster film cliché you can think of, but at least it never feels authentic for a second.

Even the always watchable Shia LaBeouf doesn't get to do much with his intriguing, but underused character, despite sucking up all the attention in every scene he's in. "I got a .38 on each ankle, .38 on my right, .25 on my left, chopper in the trunk, lockin' my belt, I'm on it" he barks with a ferocious authority, and for a moment you think this film has a chance. Then Shia looks deep into the eyes of unlikable lead Bobby Soto and says, "I'll ride with you till the wheels fall off!" and then you suddenly remember David Ayer also wrote The Fast & The Furious.