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Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The film starts out with a funeral, followed by four of his buddies having a drink and smoking a doobie. Zach (Michael Pitt) is a portfolio manager and is engaged to Janie (Morgan Wolk). Noah (Dan Stevens) was the class geek. He was bullied and is still a bit socially awkward. Bryce (Rob Brown) has a hot stock tip. And Warren (Christopher Abbott) rounds out the foursome.It starts out innocent enough as Noah was able to come up with the money for our foursome to invest in Bidexco stock. As fate would have it the stock fails. Noah borrowed the money from the mob and Eddie (John Travolta) wants his money with interest. Clearly our guys don't have the money, so they reluctantly agree to kidnap Marques (Edi Gathegi) for Eddie so he can exchange for his kidnapped niece.The film flows in a dark, quirky and sometimes twisty manner. Then at the very end the film twists in multiple ways which frankly I didn't see coming.Travolta looked like he is using Botox and his hair looked like it was plastic. Good crime/drama/thriller with some dark humor.Guide: F-bomb, sex, nudity (Morgan Wolk)

Directed by Jackie Earle Haley, "Criminal Activities" from 2015 is about four high school friends - Zack, Noah, Warren, and Bryce (Michael Pitt, Dan Stevens, Rob Brown, Christopher Abbott, who meet up after the funeral of their friend Matthew. Warren tells them about a stock that's about to go up - he has insider trading info - and the agent who has been stockpiling the stock is getting nervous about being caught and needs to dump his shares. He wants $200,000. Noah says he can get it. The stock tanks and wipes out the investment. Unfortunately, Noah neglected to tell him the money came from a mobster, Eddie (John Travolta) and he wants repayment of $400,000 - accrued interest. He will wipe the slate clean if they will help him with a problem he's having - kidnap the brother of the man who kidnapped his niece so that he can get her back.Boy could this have been better. It's a complicated story, and a good one, but the script and direction aren't strong enough to carry it. It's similar to many other films of today with its surprises, but at the end of the film I was left confused about certain money issues. There is an homage to Pulp Fiction with the presence of Travolta and the guys' initial meeting at the Royale. And it has gross violence, just like Tarantino. It's just not Tarantino.The acting is uneven with some good performances. Travolta does a great job, but earth to Travolta: if you're bald, shave your head and/or wear an expensive hairpiece, and stop looking like a chimpanzee with that hairline. It's so distracting.The director, Jackie Earle Haley, hands in a good performance, as do Pitt, Edi Gathegi, Pitt, and Stevens.

"Criminal Activities" aspires to be a Quentin Tarantino-like riddle of a crime-action-dark comedy. Unfortunately, it fails on all three levels of a crime saga, action picture, and dark humor.John Travolta is good as a mob boss who appears to be the center of convoluted crime story. Or is he? The screenplay for "Criminal Activities" resorts to an epilogue that seeks to put a twist on the story a kidnapping and high stakes blackmail of a group of four men who have made a lapse in judgment in borrowing money to invest in a pharmaceutical company. Their scheme backfires, and they are now confronted by Travolta's mob boss for payback time.There are too many stretches of the film that are poorly paced and thin on action. Also, it is difficult to understand a good portion of the dialogue that is spoken too fast by the actors.In the bonus section of the DVD, the character actor Jackie Earle Hayley recalls how he came to direct the picture. In a conversation with Travolta, Hayley discusses the great potential of the screenplay. Unfortunately, the cliché-ridden script was the biggest problem of the film. There was a fine cast of young actors, especially Edi Gathegi, who steals all of his scenes with clever line readings. But the final effect of the film is flat and non-engaging.

This film contains some dark humor and a surprise twist ending, but in my opinion it's barely a grade B-movie. We've seen many similar type movies over the years, so, to me, this one came across as rather a "poor cousin" in comparison to some of the others that are named by several reviewers on this site.This is one of those films that if I revealed too much about the plot details I would be writing too many spoilers, so let's just say all is not what it seems on screen. However, when the reasons for what's occurring are revealed it just seemed quite flimsy to me.This movie marks the directorial debut of acclaimed actor Jackie Earle Haley, who also is excellent in a supporting role here. Robert Lowell also makes his screen debut as the scriptwriter. All in all, the film is not going to win any awards, but I was interested enough to want to know how it would all turn out, even though some of the journey was a bit painful. In the end, it all just seemed more of a gimmick than anything else.