A yakuza boss' sex slave (Salma Hayek) tries to escape from his clutches, with a suitcase full of ill-earned money and her estranged daughter in tow, only to trapped in her apartment complex and forced to fight off wave after wave of baddies. EVERLY is a dreadful action exploitation movie through and through, producing far more eye-rolls than bullets fired. Director Joe Lynch tries to make his film pop with swooping digital camera tricks, practical effects and clear swipes from better auteurs (paging Edgar Wright...) but the entire picture is undermined severely by the pathetically heinous script he helped develop with screenwriter Yale Hannon. The story constantly flip-flops its tone and featured theatrics; one minute you are watching absurdist violence and deus ex machinas galore, the next you are sitting through extensive torture porn and sexual humiliation. Basic logic and reason can't even be fitted into the script, as many unanswered questions are generated and left completely in the open, including the simple one of how does the titled heroine have near-expert weapon training despite being under the thumb of a major control freak? Hayek is uttered wasted, unable to put any worthwhile effort into the would-be badass. How could she when she's playing a character that is utterly traumatized by an off-screen rape at the very beginning but then nonchalantly explains sex trafficking to her worried mother in a later scene. Unless you crave and are desperate for more sick, bottom-of-the-barrel action flicks, skip this completely.
FINAL REVIEW: 1 / 5
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