Reno Rangan As the title suggests, it's all about the bag, a mystery bag. An interesting angle of storytelling. It was a good mystery, though they did not get it right. The plot line had all the ingredients, but while developing it, they had lost the way. I was not impressed with the writing and also the direction. It is engaging with a fine pace, but visually all the crucial film scenes looked so flat or comparable with other classic films. More or less, everything is predictable, except the end twist.This is a one day tale. Most of the film takes place in one night with full of mixup and going after the truth. A gangster boss hires a hit-man for an important job that he must safeguard a bag till he arrive to get it in an isolated motel. During waiting for his boss, the bag man goes through unexpected events which eventually taking many turns, that comes to an end with a twist. With the limited cast, everyone got a fair share of screen.The actors like Cusack and De Niro are the advantage, but this is not an ideal film for such actors. Lately they and many other aged actors are into such films. So it is expected, but not expected to fail all their attempts. This film was okay, if you are not looking for a masterpiece thriller. Can be watched once, but instantly forgettable film. So film like this cannot be recommended, but if you decide to watch, don't expect anything other than just an entertainment or timepass. That is what it is good at.4.5/10

jwitt-04202 I can not believe two respectable actors (Cusack & De Niro) joined this mess of a plot. If Cusack told the Latina to leave or join him again, I was going to puke. At no point in the movie did I understand what was going and why anything was happening. The movie successfully confuses you about who to trust. Not sure it really matters... And how many hours are there in a night? It seemed like it was dark for days straight! This is one of the worst movies I have actually watched (couldn't sleep and on Netfilx). I have never wanted something to end more. Not sure why the production paid good actors for this movie; the results would have been with some less expensive rookies. Save yourself the pain and anguish I endured, do not watch this! I would be happy to hear this was a high school kids first attempt at writing, directing and producing a movie. Other than that, this is shameful!

eddie_baggins A true oddity of a film that marks it near impossible to categorize, The Bag Man is bargain basement filmmaking at its most strange and oddly intriguing and a film that you can sense being added to the plethora's of cult movies marked "So bad it's so good" for make no doubt about it readers The Bag Man is a bad movie that still deserves to be checked out.With headliners in the form of the ever slumming it John Cusack and the increasingly stuck on auto pilot Robert De Niro there is no doubt that many viewers will check into this seedy joint expecting some high quality thrills and spills but they will find themselves surely disappointed with a tale that veers frequently between dark brutal violence, Lynch like abstract comical moments and a story that will keep you glued thanks to the human nature in all of us wanting to know just what is in the titular "bag" and what is Mr. De Niro's crime boss Dragna actually up to. The Bag Man's premise and execution are all wholly unbelievable yet it's all played and directed in such a way that it all works to a low level of entertainment.John Cusack and his humongous mullet have fun with a role that is all types of generic in the form of hit-man/sad sack Jack and relative newcomer Da Costa isn't completely wasted as street girl with a conscience Rivka but it's in the supports of Crispin Glover and De Niro that the film has some of its most wacky and memorable moments. Glover while not having abundant screen time makes the most of his wheelchair bound creepy motel owner Ned and De Niro gets to chew through some seriously over the top monologues as Dragna and even gets one of the more shocking acts of on screen violence in recent memory under his belt within the first 30 minutes of the film. There is also strange joyous quality's shown by director Grovic who masters proceedings like some movie class graduate having fun with bright lights and dim lit hotel rooms and forgetting to direct with any type of originality.The Bag Man is by no means a film worthy of rushing out to get but it's also a unique and frequently must see to believe strange journey filled with one eyed pimps, Croatian midgets, a hamming it acting great and a mysterious bag and all those elements ad up to a film that is worthy of a late night watch and no doubt a few laughs with a room full of film lovers.2 bad cases of road rash out of 5 For more movie reviews and opinions check into - www.jordanandeddie.wordpress.com

skeptic skeptical I'm not sure what to make of The Bag Man. It all seems rather pointless. Except that it is replete with intertextual film references. Blue Velvet, Red Rock West, Psycho, any and everything made by Quentin Tarantino. Okay, so the writer and director have watched a lot movies. So have I. But that does not mean that I should be making movies. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for intertextuality and allusions to famous films, provided only that they are not utterly gratuitous to the plot. Here they strike me as purely and simply self-indulgent. In truth, there is nothing holding all of the individually creepy elements together--the Eastern European slut in a Wonder Woman suit, the sadistic dwarf, the black pimp with an eye patch, the unbalanced Vietnam vet motel manager (I'm not making any of this up)--beyond of course the familiar refrain, "you're all going to die." The extreme violence of this "story" (which is a stretch) is incredibly Tarantino-esque. In fact, at one point I convinced myself that this must be a Tarantino movie.Then, adding insult to injury, the conclusion is yet another version of the worst of all possible happy Hollywood endings: "girl meets boy and they fall in love". Truly, I cannot recommend this thing. I am sorry that De Niro saw fit to donate his father's paintings to such a production. Seems like a desecration to me.