For some movies a long build up leads to a large pay-off. In others, it feels like you are on a long bus ride heading nowhere in particular. Bring Him To Me unfortunately feels like the latter. And to make matters worse you are trapped on the bus with people who aren’t overly interesting.

Bring Him To Me follows the story of a getaway driver with no name (Barry Pepper). Someone ordered him to bring a young thief, Jacob (Jamie Costa) to meet a criminal kingpin after a job goes sideways. Unknown to Jacob, somoen accuses him of stealing $25,000 from the take, and he must pay for his transgressions. The driver on the other hand isn’t so sure of the youngster’s guilt. But he follows the instructions he is given anyway. The trip towards Jacob’s destiny isn’t straight forward. The duo run into not only police officers, but other crooks trying to figure out where they are going and for what reason. The real question is however is will the driver turn Jacob in. Or, will he let him go before they reach the end of the road?

Part of Bring Him To Me feel like it stole bits and pieces from other films. From the mysterious driver who loves older cars, to the young, clueless upstart, a robbery gone awry and missing money, the film really is just a rehash of several films. In some cases that would be fine, but none of the main characters are interesting at the least. They are boring stereotypes who you don’t want to invest the time in getting to know.  A lot of the film is just talking heads too, with nothing else going on other then the characters talking about things. Even the villains are just cookie-cutter composites of villains from much better films. The filmmakers try to spice things up from time to time by interjecting some actions scenes, but they are far and few between. They aren’t even all that well done either.

The film isn’t all bad though because it does do some thing right, like creating a tension filled atmosphere. If you care about the characters at all, this atmosphere would help you get through the meandering plot. It does build nicely towards the ending as well, which a lot of films these days can’t do properly. While it is predictable (in fact about 15 minutes in you should be able to know how everything is going to end up), it does allow you to shut your mind off and go with the flow. Sam Neill also deserves kudos for at least playing a character completely different than anything he’s even played before. He stands out in a film full of cardboard performances.

Bring Him To Me isn’t great, but it’s not so bad that you want to turn it off part way through either. It’s the type of movie though that you watch when there really isn’t anything else to watch.