When you start a decade with a badWall Streetsequel and a worseTransformerssequel, going anywhere counts as up.
Consider, like, Jai Courtney, the star of the worstDie Hardand the worstTerminatorand whateverInsurgentwas.
LaBeouf plays Gabriel, a marine struggling to find his family in a wasteland while also struggling through PTSD.
Courtney plays Devin, Gabriels best friend with a secret.
Gabriel is the introvert.
But the performance feels familiar in the worst way.
There was a time when every young actor with the Method on their mind did a Marlon Brando impression.
LaBeoufs mournful mumbles are particularly incoherent, locking us outside of whatever Gabriels journey is supposed to be.
Then again, incoherent seems to be the main creative idea ofMan Down.
Theoretically, Courtneys playing the hothead pal, but the films too self-serious for real humor.
Man Downwants to be a sensitive portrait of modern-day PTSD, a fine subject thats rarely explored in-depth.
Man Downs fantastical storytelling undercuts any attempt at humanity.
And any good intentions are undercut by its truly horrible ones.
The flashbacks feel shameless; the apocalypse just looks dumb.
Then comes the Big Twist.
