Call it Mississipi Bu-ah-ning, because we’ve got Marky Mark and Yayha Abdul-Mahteen II heading down South to beat up Klansmen in Elegance Bratton’s By Any Means, where the pair play an odd couple — mob enforcer and FBI agent — sent to do hard things to awful men. This right here is what we like to call “peak Dad cinema,” and it’s a shame it’s not coming out at Thanksgiving or Christmas, because we’d be there Opening Day with him in tow, Raisinets or Junior Mints in hand. Solid cast, good director (keep an eye out for Move Ya Body: The Birth of House, his documentary about the Chicago origins of House music, which was a hit at Sundance), engaging trailer (as dropped earlier on Wednesday by Paramount Pictures) — what’s not to like?
Peep it:
Here’s a synopsis for By Any Means:
“Based on a true story, a young Black FBI agent (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is sent into 1960s Mississippi to investigate a wave of brutal killings targeting civil rights leaders. Forced to work alongside notorious mafia hitman Greg Scarpa (Mark Wahlberg), he finds himself pulled into a deadly hunt where justice and vengeance begin to blur.
When the system is broken, two men divided by everything agree on one thing: the law has limits. They don’t.”
Cue the Rick Ross. Anyway, By Any Means hits theaters on September 4, and Jesus Christ, is it going to be a crowded Labor Day at the multiplex.
See, gaming’s currently suffering from the same scheduling problem — nobody wants to go up against GTA VI in November, so you’re getting titles like Wolverine, the new Silent Hill, and Star Wars: Galactic Racer earlier in the Fall. Who wants to counter-program Dune or Avengers? Not By Any Means, that’s for sure. The Angry Birds, though — they’re gonna try on December 23.