This could be the worst movie I have ever seen. I consider this movie as bad as the Twilight series. Much of the movie is filled with actors who are playing gangsters (besides the actor who plays Bone) trying to wax philosophic, but you can tell they don't really understand what they are actually saying-- beyond Shia, probably, but who the f--- really knows what reality he lives in? For some reason, I thought David Ayer only movie had been Training Day prior to this. I didn't realize that Antoine Fuqua directed that one with Ayer writing. You can tell that Ayer doing double duty in The Tax Collector is a deadly combination. The first problem is that the poster makes this movie look like a Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi, Dusk to Dawn), or Denis Villeneuve's Sicario. Neither of these this movie achieves. I would have done a more sparse poster with Shia LaBeouf's character Creeper on the front with one hand in his suit pocket and the other one wrapped around a .38 Special Snubnose in amid walking with a little swag. Unfortunately, that would have not worked out either, and I will get two why soon enough.

As far as I can remember, the TWO action scenes in this film have little flash or wow factor. Not sure if they had to edit this film down or not, but they are quick and little meaning to the overall plot. You could have gotten the same message/climax they were trying to go for through their extensive and OVER USE of exposition. There is way too much explanation to literary everything in this movie. When there is actually meaningful dialog in this film it's crippled by the MAIN character's delivery and convincingness as the character he is playing. Now, if you were made into thinking that Shia was the main character in this film after watching the trailer, and that he was THE Tax Collector-- well jokes on you, I guess.

Bobby Soto is The Tax Collector in this film, and Shia is actually just the muscle for him. I have never seen Soto before, but he is horrible in this film. I imagined that half way through the film that this must be what watching an episode of Power or Empire must be like. It's like Soto thinks he's in the Latino version of the Young and The Restless, where he is a shot caller, who thinks he can find redemption for the shit he is doing through his god. The scenes where he's supposed to be sad are extremely over overacted. It's like he's in a Mel Brooks movie and Brooks has told him to play up the sadness for just losing his wife. It's almost comical.

I am not some Shia fanboy or anything, but I think he's a genuinely awesome actor from the newer generation. He's the the only actor in this movie who actually convinced me that he was the character he was playing, so much so, I wouldn't want to be alone with him in a room even if he was talking to me about being Ketogenetic. The big problem is that they kill off Shia's character-- the most compelling character-- half way through the film. This took whatever air this movie had left out of it. No chance to see how ruthless and psychopathic Shia's character Creeper could be even though they had been hyping it up throughout the movie. Even if they were trying to make a statement on how everyone is mortal in this film, they could have made him die at the very end in a huge climatic action sequence after taking out the big baddie or getting killed by the cops after taking out the big bad guy. He could of actually had his ride or die moment.

I can't believe I wrote this much about this movie. Maybe I am just angry that it could have been better than it was-- or that I paid $6.00 for it.

The Tax Collector is the second-best David Ayer-directed film (the best remains End of Watch), but it's far from the best David Ayers-penned movie – though to be fair, that includes Training Day and Dark Blue, as well as the aforementioned End of Watch.

The script can be nicely subtle, especially when it comes to the character of Creeper (Shia LaBeouf putting his natural weirdness to good use); he's always impeccably dressed in a suit and tie, but his cauliflower ears are a dead giveaway – here's someone who can take punishment as well as dish it out.

This is great stuff, but at some point you gotta put your money where your mouth is, and that's where the character shortchange us. Much is made of how Creeper has maimed, tortured, and murdered hundreds of people, but in the course of the film he only fires his gun once, and then in self-defense; on the other hand, he's given a martyr's death, but I'm not sure whether we're supposed to feel bad for him or not. If all that's said of him is true, he has it coming to him; if not, we've been fed a line of bullsh*t.

Having said that, the script can also be painfully unsubtle, in particular when it's trying to convince us that the protagonist, David Cuevas (Bobby Soto), is a Killer with a Heart of Gold (talk about a crock of sh*t) – a family man who prays before every meal and advises Creeper to accept Christ in his heart, as opposed to antagonist Conejo (José Martín), who engages in human sacrifices and voodoo rituals.

That's pretty black-and-white, when it should be shades-of-gray; in other words, The Tax Collector's problem is that it insists on splitting its characters into 'bad guys' and 'good guys' when 'bad guys' and 'worse guys' would be a more accurate division.

I like David Ayer. Based on interviews and his social media postings, seems like a cool guy. As a filmmaker, he's hit or miss ranging from some really solid action-thrillers like U-571, End of Watch and Fury to the poorly made flicks such as Sabotage (though has its moments) and Suicide Squad (which I've soured on over the years).

His latest, the second one straight-to-streaming following Bright, is The Tax Collector, seemingly aspiring to be some sort of modern day Godfather. The editing here is rather bad, acting was mixed with Shia LaBeouf shining brightest to the point I wish the movie was about his character while Bobby Soto has some okay scenes but in the lead, never quite works. And the writing, also by Ayer, was shoddy (shows Training Day was all about Washington's performance than the story or dialogue).

I wanted to really like this film. It had potential and starts off well enough, but after meandering for the first hour or so, doesn't really get off the ground once a story actually kicks in. By the end, despite trying to have some emotional scenes, and a finale that was supposed to be kick ass, never could rebound from all of the other shortcomings. **2.5/5**