| The 8th Day is primarily billed as an action movie, which is incorrect. It’s a pure crime drama with a touch of comedy. It has also been billed as a heist story with a female voice, and while this is definitely true, it can give away the ending when viewed from the female characters. A lot of this movie does look like every other crime drama, but it does have a slightly different flavour to make it a bit more compelling. | | 2025
Directed by: Alexandra Chando
Screenplay by: Suzanne Weinert
Starring: Darren Mann, Phoebe Tonkin
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There’s a very common screenwriting rule (which I’m a big fan of) that says movies need a ticking clock, it could be a literal ticking clock or something more metaphorical which sets a time-related ending. Or in this case, something in between the two, by naming the movie after the time frame of the action, we have created a clock. Day one starts in Indiana with two hapless criminals employed by their boss who is still in prison; they’re supposed to travel to a small town in Texas and find their boss’s former partner who screwed him out of money decades ago and get his money back.
Elvis (Darren Mann) is the handsome talkative one, who looks for fun every day, and well, crime is fun. Jeremiah (Mustafa Speaks) is the quiet brooding thug, who’s in it for the money. When arriving in Texas, Elvis immediately meets two girls so he has no problem extending their trip. The old criminal they are looking for turns out to be a woman who has bad taste in everything but proposes a new score as a way to get their money.
The initial character interactions are fun, especially between Elvis and Eve (Phoebe Tonkin), who helps introduce us to some of the other important characters in town, namely the misogynistic Sheriff. But things slow down significantly during the middle days, the heist of a cash payday place is not interesting, and the characters get boring as we wait for the 8th day to arrive. As I mentioned, a lot of this movie looks like every other crime drama movie and that definitely causes a lack of intrigue in the middle.
The action on the 8th day seems to wrap up earlier than the movie’s runtime suggests it should, and indeed complications arise as all of the characters work their way back into the plot. Some of it is easily predictable, while the rest is only predictable if playing close attention.
The writing for all of the characters is solid and efficient, all the interactions appropriately build off earlier scenes, but The 8th Day does get boring. The female viewpoint which starts on the sidelines and becomes significant by the end, does give the film a slightly different flavour but it still looks like any other crime drama.
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