1992 (2024) - Movie Review

Director: Ariel Vromen
Starring: Tyrese Gibson, Scott Eastwood, Ray Liotta, Michael Beasley, Christopher Ammanuel, Dylan Arnold, Ori Pfeffer, Oleg Taktarov, Dot Da Genius
Genre: Thriller, Action, Drama, Crime
Writer: Ariel Vromen, Sascha Penn
Runtime: 97 min
Rated: Rated R for violence and pervasive language
Buy This Movie: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV

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Synopsis:

In 1992, Mercer (Tyrese Gibson) is desperately trying to rebuild his life and his relationship with his son (Christopher A'mmanuel) amidst the turbulent 1992 LA uprising following the Rodney King verdict. Across town, another father and son (Ray Liotta and Scott Eastwood) put their own strained relationship to the test as they plot a dangerous heist to steal catalytic converters, which contain valuable platinum, from the factory where Mercer works. As tensions rise in Los Angeles and chaos erupts, both families reach their boiling points when they collide in this tense crime-thriller.

Review:

"1992" feels like two different movies packed into one. The first deals with the 1992 L.A. riots, setting up the historical context and socioeconomic dynamics. The second is a poorly executed genre exercise that brings nothing new to the cinematic table. The end result is a puzzling and wildly uneven movie.

Two families clash on the fateful night of April 29, 1992. As chaos erupts on the streets of Los Angeles, Mercer (Tyrese Gibson), a man trying to put his life back together struggles to shield his son from the harsh realities of life and steer him on the right path, while another father-son pair, Lowell (Ray Liotta) and Riggin (Scott Eastwood) take advantage of the disorder to orchestrate a daring heist at the factory where Mercer works.

Gibson's cahracter spends at least half of this movie navigating the riot-devastated streets of Los Angeles, and only connects with the heist part of the story in the second half. Something about the balance of these two plot threads feels off, neither fleshed out well enough, and the movie never really finds a way to make them work together. The characters are underdeveloped and most of the performances are unremarkable. The late Ray Liotta is the only one who offers some entertainment value. Even in his old age, he could still play one hell of a menacing villain.

Director and co-writer Ariel Vromen tries his hardest to make it seem like "1992" is more than just a formulaic thriller, but what ended up on screen feels like a constant struggle to sweep the mediocrity under a rug made up of some decent period production values and an underbaked attempt to tackle social issues that are as relevant today as they were back in 1992. There are serious and complicated topics in this movie that deserve a more thoughtful discussion, but the movie only seems interested in using the subject as a "cool" backdrop for a heist thriller. As for the thriller part, it's very clumsy, cliche and entirely predictable, stuck inside an anonymous factory set in Bulgaria that gives the whole thing a cheap B-movie look, especially compared with the rest of the movie.

A mash-up of "Crash" and "Die Hard" is not what I expected to find when I started watching "1992", but that's pretty much what I ended up watching. It's no wonder that the movie got shelved for two years before finally getting a stealthy release in theaters last year. The 2002 film "Dark Blue" was a much better crime drama set during the L.A. riots. Definitely watch that one instead.

SCORE: 5/10