The crime film is a personal favorite of mine, as many of my good friends could attest. It's the one genre I continually come back to over and over again, due to the fact that even when a movie isn't particularly great by its own standards there's still a chance it can be watchable when it comes to crime cinema. For whatever that reason may be, getting to see the actions of those who we as an audience would never strive to be - it's kind of a wish fulfilling experience. We get to put ourselves into an experience we would otherwise never be part of and I think almost anyone could relate to that. The Money Trail is a low budget action/crime oriented movie from Florida, a location not totally common for this particular genre - which is a good thing. Using a mix of green screen and ultra low budget set design, it's definitely a classic case of guerrilla filmmaking. Which as you may can guess certainly has its ups and downs. Set amongst the Florida backdrops, it's certainly a different kind of crime flick.

Lenny is the son of a powerful crime boss, and he's now serving some hard time in prison. He could have made everything go away if he would have gave up information on his father, but he kept his mouth shut and now his dad feels its time to repay the favor. His dad puts a two million dollar reward out for the recovery of his son just as Lenny goes out with the road crew in order to do some community service. As soon as the work day begins, three armed men stumble upon the road crew and a Mexican standoff ensues. In the midst of all the chaos, one of the guards grabs Lenny and runs off into the forest with him. Now every wise guy in the state is going to be looking for Lenny and this guard, but will Lenny have a change of heart?

The basic story itself, between Lenny and this guard in particular, I really like it. Even though there are few really good performances in the movie, I thought that these two were actually able to sell this chemistry and bond that they develop over the course of the movie. When I now think back on the movie itself, these two are what I remember most and the character development spent between them is what really makes the movie. At the end of the ride, it just makes sense and it paints heart on the rest of the story. Overall the script really seems solid enough. It's just that the budget reveals itself often and the majority of the cast, who are non-actors so you can't really hold contempt for them, take the production down a notch. Characters stutter, pause and completely flub their lines at times and all of the little nuances of no budget cinema arise. As far as the lack of budget becoming apparent, there's a certain cabin set where the walls are wrapped in newspapers and garbage bags that becomes an important part of the story in the final minutes. This could have been a choice on behalf of the filmmakers of course, but more than likely it's just a budgetary concern. Had there been maybe a line of dialogue to explain why, or even the characters pointing out how strange the setting was, it could have been blended in some. Still, picking apart a no budget movie for these things isn't exactly fair. However, you should be fare warned. If you can get past the little things, there is actually a nice little story being told here.

I think if there had been a little more style to the movie, it could have delivered more on the viewers expectations. Maybe if the camera had been more mobile or if the set ups were a little more complicated, it could have went with the stylish atmosphere that I think they were going for. Even though I know co-director Ray Etheridge is a cinematographer by trade and the movie isn't shot in a poor way at all, I just think something more kinetic might have lent something to the movie. You just get the idea that there are shades of Tarantino to be found somewhere underneath the skin of the movie. As it is though, the leads (outside of the actor who played Lenny, and a couple of others) can't really get the rhythm of the dialogue to actually nail down the reference. As it is though, The Money Trail does show promise from the filmmakers. I liked the ingenuity of it and the created sets. Even with trash bags on the walls, it's something that you notice as a viewer and I think that is a good thing if it makes sense in the context. There's also a prison cell at the start that although you can tell it isn't real, still looks fairly convincing! That could lend itself to something truly stylish. It clocks in at 51 minutes in length, so it's caught in the middle of being a short and a feature. So, watching it is kind of a breeze. So if you get the chance to, keep an open mind and you might just find a movie you like. Hopefully we'll get to see more from the filmmakers.