Criminal Activities has a good cast for talent in the main roles with Michael Pitt, Dan Stevens, Christopher Abbott, Rob … It is infuriating in its unoriginal quality. "Criminal Activities" is a sneaky, snaky little crime thriller with some pretty impressive plot twists. A lot of blather about nothing...and then I was surprised by the decent ending.

The plot and characters are unabashed Tarantino knockoffs, neither used to their full potential.

Criminal Activities | Review Subliminal Criminal: Haley’s Debut Feloniously Familiar There’s a certain amount of smarmy appeal to justify Jackie Earle Haley ’s attraction to taking on Criminal Activities, the actor’s first stint as director. So much of "Criminal Activities," a dizzyingly convoluted hostage drama, feels like a grim hang-out comedy as scripted by undergrad college film students. My initial reaction is to suggest the bar should lowered a bit and audiences and reviewers should treat the film charitably because it is a directorial debut produced on a modest budget.

What's worse are the often poor performances, with major players including Haley "Criminal Activities" represents the directorial debut of Jackie Earle Healey, who also plays a featured role as Gerry, a dispassionate and hard-as-nails enforcer for mobster Eddie (John Travolta).

Criminal Activities marks Jackie Earle Haley's directorial debut.
For instance, when John Travolta’s mobster, Eddie, forces a quartet of entitled patsies to kidnap a prominent drug dealer, Marquis (Edi Gathegi), he doesn’t do anything as banal as threatening to kill them should they fail to comply. Despite a few odd storytelling choices and inconsistencies, Criminal Activities is a fun, if sometimes tonally uneven, crime flick. 27 December 2016 | by Ed-Shullivan – See all my reviews. User Reviews. Director Jackie Earle Haley's "Criminal Activities" is the worst kind of Tarantino clone, one with no gas in the tank, and no clue about how to pull off Tarantino's swagger. Featuring self-consciously quirky dialogue, digressive subplots and flashbacks and a twisty ending so complex it makes The Usual Suspects seem straightforward, Criminal Activities is …

Criminal Activities usually manages to adhere to these guidelines simultaneously, or at least alternatingly.