In G20, President Danielle Sutton must save her family and other global leaders when the G20 Summit is taken over by terrorists. There are moments of heroism and sacrifice in this trope-heavy action film, but they’re overshadowed by a torrent of bloody violence and profane language.
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Violet hasn’t been on a date in a good long while.
It’s not like there haven’t been offers. The single mom draws plenty of male attention for both her beauty and her brains. But she’s been the one to keep everyone at arm’s length. She’s justified that non-dating distance with the demands of her workload as a counselor and as a mom.
But truthfully, those aren’t really the only reasons she’s avoided romantic connections. She’s also … afraid, in a way.
You see, Violet is so great at helping emotionally wounded and abused women because she herself was once an abused wife. Her husband screamed at her and beat her. Violet even had a gun pointed at her and her infant son. And it was only the death of her husband, Blake, that set her free.
Even a therapist can be emotionally locked-up tight with those kinds of wounds.
Anyway, all of that is why this first date with a guy she’s only ever met online is such a huge step for her. I mean, who knows how badly it could all go?
Violet’s date, Henry, seems to be thoughtful and kind. They’ve been talking together for about three months, and Henry hasn’t pushed her once. He’s a press photographer from the local mayor’s office. And his photography is respected in and out of the political sphere.
But to be away from her son and off at a fancy restaurant with this relative stranger isn’t easy for Violent. What if he’s selfish or rude? What if he’s nothing like the good guy he seems to be? What if it’s all been an act?
Violet’s sister, Jen, comes over to babysit and to push Violet out the door. “They’re not all Blake,” she proclaims. Violet knows that’s true. It’s the sort of thing she would say to encourage her own patients.
So, she dresses up, puts on her makeup and sets off for a fancy restaurant on the top of a local high-rise. It’s a beautiful, classy place filled with beautiful, classy people. When Henry shows up, he’s handsome and charming in a relaxed, unassuming way. And Violet can finally relax herself, with a glass of wine in hand. It feels good to be here with this man.
Perhaps all her fears about this first date were completely overblown and ridiculous.
The only annoyance has been these odd phone messages she’s gotten since she first arrived. Violet can’t explain why these local “drops” from someone who has to be nearby are being sent or who they’re from. Henry looks at her phone and suggests it’s some idiot in the restaurant who wants her attention.
Is it that guy she bumped into when she first got here? The smarmy piano player who eyed her while she ordered wine at the bar? She isn’t sure. But it sure is a pain. Maybe she should …
“Your phone is cloned. I can see everything. Call the police and your son dies!” pops up on Violet’s phone.
And it’s at that moment that Violet realizes that her worst fears about this first date … weren’t even close.
For all of Violet’s doubts about Henry, he turns out to be a very thoughtful, considerate guy who patiently gives the frantic and oddly acting Violet the benefit of the doubt. And when she eventually talks about the past abuse she suffered and what it cost her, he thanks her for sharing and comforts her. “That’s what abusive people do,” Henry tells her. “They take everything away. … They steal away hope.”
As the story unfolds, Henry also goes out of his way to help Violet and to put her at ease. He uses his own phone to walk around the restaurant to determine who might be in range to send drop messages, for instance. When Henry believes that Violet’s anxiety is simply due to issues at home, he makes it plain that Violet’s son is far more important than their date. And later, he’s willing to step between Violet and a gunman.
In a similar manner, a woman working at the restaurant bar notices Violet’s emotional distress and wants to help if Violet’s date is becoming abusive. The woman also runs over to push a gunman who’s about to shoot someone; she’s hit and injured for her efforts.
After bad things happen, someone says, “My horoscope was right.”
Early on, Jen and Violet are talking about the upcoming date, and Jen asks about what underwear her sister is wearing. “You need to get laid,” she tells Violet. When Violet and Henry first meet, they banter about online dating apps, and Violet jokes about getting requests for “feet pics.” A bit later, Violet receives drop messages and Henry quips, “At least it’s not a d–k pic.”
A smirking piano player flirts with Violet as she sits at the bar. In order to keep Henry from cutting their date short, Violet kisses him. A couple embraces and kisses in an elevator. A waiter speaks with a somewhat effeminate lisp.
To force Violet to comply, numerous threats are made targeting her child’s life. As part of the message sender’s threat, he sends a masked man with a gun to Violet’s home. She watches the man’s actions via her home security cameras.
[Spoiler Warning] We see the man knock out Violet’s sister and physically lift Toby, Violet’s son, hitting the walls with him and throwing him into his room. Later, the masked killer shoots at several people and through locked doors, he shoots someone in the shoulder. He shoots into Toby’s bed, believing the boy is underneath it. And he viciously thumps a pair of women around a kitchen and hallway, smashing mirrors and various fragile objects. He bashes one person to the floor, kicking her violently in the side and head.
We also see, in a series of intensely violent flashbacks, scenes where Violent is badly bloodied and physically abused by her husband. He kicks her in the head and aims a gun at her blood-smeared face while screaming. He even gives her the gun at one point, but she is unable to pull the trigger. He grabs the weapon back and points it at their infant son.
The message sender supplies a small vial of poison for Violet to poison Henry’s drink with. Two different people are poisoned. One falls to the floor, mouth foaming.
Someone takes a bullet meant for Violet and falls, bloodied, to the floor. A woman is slammed up against a window and stabbed in the back. A restaurant window is shot and then smashed open. Two people fall out of it. One crashes down into a neon sign below while the other dangles from the broken window by a snagged and tearing tablecloth.
A man is stabbed in the leg and then in the chest by two different knives, the protruding blades are left lodged there. Someone is shot three times in the abdomen. A screaming man raises his pistol to his own chin to commit suicide and the camera cuts away as he pulls the trigger.
A panicked woman drives at speed through traffic, sideswiping other vehicles and smashing through signs and road barriers.
The dialogue contains one clear f-word (and possibly more uses in a chaotic scene filled with screaming people), two s-words and a single use each of “d–n” and “d–khead.” God and Jesus’ names are collectively abused a total of four times (once combining God and “d–n”).
When Violet first enters the restaurant, she goes to the bar for a glass of wine. After Henry enters, he jokingly says he had several drinks in the car on the way over. From there we see a number of patrons drinking wine and mixed drinks throughout the evening. Violet and Henry also order shots of tequila, each of them drink a shot.
The threatening messages Violet receives force her to lie, steal and potentially kill if she wants to protect her son’s life.
Drop has an attractive sheen about it. And that’s thanks in no small part to Christopher Landon’s well-staged direction and the film’s appealing central players: Meghann Fahy and Brandon Sklenar.
However, it’s only after letting your brain settle into the tense, first-date thriller storyline that you suddenly realize that the logic behind it all is the equivalent of a block of Swiss cheese. Even a well-equipped Mission Impossible team (with Tom Cruise at the forefront) couldn’t make this story’s plot points work.
Compounding those scripting problems, though, is the film’s violence—featured in a variety of shooting, stabbing and poisoning attacks, as well as a sub-plot painfully depicting flashbacks of aggressive marital abuse. The film arguably ends with a tacit encouragement that abuse victims should be “strong enough” to step up and kill their abusers.
Add the film’s plusses and minuses together and you’ve got an aesthetically inviting thriller … with issues. Whether or not it’s also worthy of a date night is up to you.
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Rosie is seven months pregnant, but it’s Glenn who’s resting on the couch.
He attributes his shaky hands and his collapse to a knee just now to “low blood sugar.” He eats a cracker. And when he’s feeling a little better, he offers to make pasta for dinner. If Rosie wants, he’ll even throw in some butter.
And then, much to Glenn’s dismay, free-spirited Rickey shows up. Sure, they were best friends in college. But now, Glenn finds Rickey too chaotic and uncaring. He’s been trying to phase Rickey out of his life with silence, but Rickey just doesn’t catch on.
So the two go out to lunch. And as they’re on their way back, Rickey says they should spontaneously drive the six hours from Los Angeles to Sacramento. And when Glenn begins to refuse, Rickey admits that his father passed away last month. He’s grieving. And he’d really appreciate the company as he drives to where his father wanted his ashes spread.
Feeling a sense of obligation, Glenn reluctantly agrees. He calls Rosie to let her know.
Rickey rushes to pop the trunk of his car. He pulls out a can of tennis balls. He dumps them out, runs to the side of the road and fills the can with dirt.
“Father’s ashes” acquired.
Sure, perhaps Rickey isn’t telling the truth. But he is grieving. His father did die…some time ago. And he can tell that Glenn is struggling with some things, too—things that keep causing his hands to shake.
And maybe a couple days in some city neither of them has ever visited is just what they need.
The trip eventually forces both Glenn and Rickey to confront issues they’ve kept bottled up for some time. What’s more, they’re issues that both men have kept hidden with seemingly good intentions.
Glenn, for instance, suffers from extreme anxiety brought on by the coming birth of his child. He desperately wants to provide a safe place for his child, but his fears about potential dangers have him in a chokehold. He’s worried about every little thing that could go wrong. His worries cause his pregnant wife stress to the point that she’s stopped telling him about doctor’s visits, because she knows it’ll just make him worry and cause things to get worse. But a few key moments in the film help Glenn to recognize this issue’s significance and to take small steps to rectify it.
Likewise, despite his lie, Rickey does struggle with intense grief and guilt. His father did die, albeit some time ago, and he had been attending a support group for some time. However, through that group, he’s learned quite well how to identify when others are dealing with unresolved issues—and he’d rather help them work through their problems than touch his own. But, like Glenn, the trip to Sacramento forces him to confront both his grief and guilt and to push forward.
The film provides a couple shout outs to single mothers who’ve each resolved to take care of their baby despite the father’s absence. And an absent father chooses to right his wrong and help take care of his child.
Someone adds “amen” after giving a eulogy. A character describes life as “a hellscape of unpredictability.”
Rickey and a woman flirt, trading sexual innuendos and bedroom banter. Later, the woman attempts to get Rickey to have sex with her, but Rickey turns it down. Another woman suggestively lets Rickey know that she’s open to having sex with him, too.
Rickey suntans naked in a chair, though we don’t see anything. We see one woman in a bikini top and others in formfitting spandex shorts. A man and woman kiss.
A men’s emotional support group paradoxically advertises that “all genders” are welcome. When Rickey sees Glenn for the first time in a while, he jokes, “Give me a kiss!
A woman expresses disappointment when Glenn tells her that he plans to remain faithful to his wife. Glenn denies that he and the woman have any “kinetic sexual energy.”
Glenn smacks Rickey a few times in anger. The two fight in a boxing ring, punching and kicking each other, and one of them takes a knee to the crotch. There’s a reference to someone nearly drowning as a child.
We hear the f-word about 25 times, including two instances preceded by “mother.” People use the s-word about 10 times. Words such as “a–,” “d–n,” “d-ck,” b–tard” and “crap” are all heard, too. God’s name is misused eight times. Jesus’ name is likewise taken in vain twice. Someone uses a crude hand gesture.
Glenn and Rickey get drunk while knocking down shots and drinking beer. Glenn later suffers a hangover. Rickey orders champagne.
Someone briefly kidnaps a baby. Rickey lies several times to prolong his hangout time with Glenn. There’s a reference to defecation.
Perhaps one of the toughest lessons to learn is that grief and worry aren’t made better by merely forgetting about them.
We all can conjure up reasons why it’s not the time to deal with these tough issues: We don’t want to be a burden; we don’t want to put that weight on someone else; we think it’ll eventually just pass; we deny those feelings altogether. But nine times out of 10, our hidden anxieties simmer like boiling water in a lid-covered pot. And even if we ignore it, it won’t be long before that bubbling water spills over anyway.
Sacramento showcases two men who learn that truth the hard way. It provides viewers with a look into that difficult catharsis in a film that’s relatively lighthearted given the subject matter it deals with. What’s not as lighthearted, however, is Sacramento’s excessive crude language. (The film’s affinity for f-words is the reason for its R rating.) And some references to sexual content hurt the overall experience, too.
Rickey and Glenn both experience growth and resolution on their spontaneous road trip to Sacramento. But viewers should be mindful of the potholes that make this a bumpier ride than it needed to be.
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The film recounts many of the events in Jesus’ life and often directly quotes passages of Scripture.
It begins with Joseph and Mary, searching for a place to stay in Bethlehem due to the decree of Caesar Augustus. We see the wise men, Herod’s hunt for Christ and Jesus teaching others at age 12. We John the Baptist calling for everyone around him to repent.
We also witness Jesus being baptized, His temptation in the desert, His calling of the disciples and many of His healings. Later, the movie depicts the feeding of the 5000, Jesus allowing Peter to walk on water, Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead and His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Jesus flips over the tables at the Temple, and He institutes the Last Supper. We watch as He suffers in anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane. And, of course, Jesus is tried, crucified, buried and resurrected from the dead.
In no uncertain terms, Jesus tells Walter that if he has faith in Him, the boy will be saved.
We also hear the Passover narrative and the story of the Fall of man. Mary anoints Jesus at Bethany. The Pharisees discuss how to get rid of Jesus. Judas betrays Jesus.
A dust storm sent by God protects Joseph and Mary from the soldiers who seek to kill baby Jesus. Angels appear as flashing lights. When Satan tempts Jesus, he causes dust storms to occur.
As Walter sees Jesus die, we watch as Walter begins to sink deep into water, unable to swim back up. However, we then see Jesus grab the boy from above and swap places with him, sending the boy back up to the surface as Jesus descends into the depths. As Walter watches Jesus sink away, he sees a depiction of the cross sink, too, reflecting how Jesus is the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins, taking the wrath of God upon Himself in our place while bestowing His righteousness upon us. Jesus emerges from the grave and comforts Walter, and Charles tells his son, “We’re alive again because He is risen.”
Occasionally, Jesus turns into Charles Dickens, probably reflecting how Charles is telling the story to his son—but one could also take the idea as reflecting how Christians are meant to become more like Christ as we grow in our sanctification (2 Cor. 3:18).
Because of the modern English vernacular used in this movie, some of the biblical passages we hear in the film may sound a bit different from their original meaning. While the vast majority and overall point of the film stays true to biblical theology, a couple moments might spark a good theological debate on a quote’s accuracy.
For one example, Jesus quotes Mark 10:45, but instead of saying, “to give [my life] as a ransom for many,” he says “to give my one life for the benefit of multitudes,” which, while similar, does remove the pivotal word “ransom” used to describe the true purpose of Jesus’ death.
