Three recent college graduates are still struggling to find work. When one finds out that he and his family are about to be evicted, he and his friends attempt to raise the money to save them. When they find out that an old classmate has won the Lotto, they decide to make a last-ditch effort and kidnap him for a share of his winnings.

The Best Laid Plans (2019), written, produced, and directed by Florida filmmaker Michael LiCastri, is an indie hostage movie about 3 friends, 1 fully loaded shotgun, and 1 best-laid plan. Made on an estimated $100,000 budget, this three friend buddy comedy is a feature that is light on action but heavy on humor.

Three old friends are going through the growing pains of adulting in present-day America – no money, highly educated but no career, and on the edge of eviction. When Subway won’t even call him back for an interview, Kevin decides to become a pimp, and his best friends tag along for a night of researching his new career field in the downtown red-light district. When they witness a concerning exchange between a pimp and one of his hoes, the gang realizes that pimpin’ ain’t easy, and his best friends decide to throw in the towel early on in their life of crime.

However, by the next day’s dawn, the ingenious Kevin has another get rich quick scheme in the clutch – it turns out that an old high school associate, Tommy (Brian Ballance), remembered for basically being the worst, has recently won the lottery, and he figures if they kidnap him in order to force him to share his windfall, including torturing him if need be, the trio can help themselves out of their financial pit. His friends are in for various reasons – loyalty, revenge, obligation – and together they lay out a plan to kidnap the newly minted millionaire. Their simple plan soon becomes complicated though when their hostage begins to play mind games and analyze them individually, turning the tables on the bumbling trio.

The film stars director, Michael LiCastri, as Kevin, who is the ringleader of the group, self-proclaimed token black friend (and the movie’s actual token black friend) Allen is played by David Plowden, and Keith Surplus plays the group’s non-intimidating muscles-character, a PE teacher named John. Want my honest opinion? The acting was so cringeworthy I had already written it off by the 3rd scene. The performances were woefully amateur as they were obviously waiting for each other to finish a line, the facial expressions felt forced, and the dialogue was basically a long-winded millennial’s rant on the current state of things. And despite this continued pointing out of how bad America’s current social and financial situation may be for most, I still did not get any sense of urgency or dire-ness to their financial situation from the narrative or dialogue. This aspect definitely could have been made grittier so that their sudden life of crime seems more justified and like the last resort, it also would have made the movie a darker comedy.

The dialogue, though it is full of humor, it is without wit, and comes off more jokey like #CollegeHumor, especially in the scenes san the stars, which seem like vignettes out of completely different movie – watch for the scene with a pimp and a hoe, as well as a scene with surprise cameos from horror legends Edwin Neal (the hitchhiker in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) playing a drug dealer named Jimmy, and B movie actress and legendary “scream queen” Linnea Quigley as his back-alley friend, Lois. Music or some sort of score could have possibly helped with timing or overall digestion of the movie, but what little score that was used was ill-used and distracting. I’m not a fan of the framing or editing on this either – there were nary any close-up shots, it was mostly wide shots, so there was no respite from the actors’ bad expressions since that was always in frame.

I tend to like my dark comedies pretty dark – think Evil Dead 1 or 2 or at least Death to Smoochy level. This comedy had the potential to be dark for its kidnapping subject matter, but it was just a jokester’s drama clunkily edited and badly acted. That said, it is not without charm for its obviously independent production and the heart put into the effort of making it; the actors earnestly tried to make a good movie, and for that, it grew on me towards the end. The movies is available NOW to stream, rent, or buy on Amazon and may be worth a watch if you are a millennial male, otherwise, Michael LiCastri’s The Best Laid Plans may be a tough and unnecessary watch.