End of the Road starts like it’ll be a decent crime thriller then slowly devolves into a semi-decent thriller, and then falls off a cliff with laughable action scenes. It could have been something but it wound up being nothing.

The flick stars Queen Latifah as a mother taking her family cross country and running into one of those drug deals gone wrong where maybe the fam should have watched No Country For Old Men and left well enough alone. But, no, the brother nabs a duffel of cash and soon the bad guys are chasing them across Arizona.

I really did think the was pretty decent for a bit. It seemed like it was going to be a taut little low budget thriller… nothing amazing, but serviceable for a late night. But it really started veering into silly-town with some unnecessary filler sequence involving otherwise innocent racists (?!) and then issuing a twist that was so obvious I thought they were subverting expectations by making us think the obvious wasn’t going to happen and then it turns around and happens just as you expected. I Vizzinied myself. Inconceivable!

Anyhow, the final act is full of laughable action scenes that definitely prove, as an action star, Queen Latifah is an excellent rapper. This finale takes place at during a weird night. I’ve seen shooting with natural light, shooting day-for-night, and shooting with “where is that light coming from now?” light. But I’ve never seen anyone shoot purple-for-night. For some unfathomable reason, all of middle-of-nowhere Arizona is bathed in a purple glow. I figured maybe they were going for a pulpy/lurid 4-color comic book pop-art style all of a sudden… or maybe this was an inexplicable sequel to (deep cut time) The Color Out of Space.

I’d like to say it was a cool choice, but I’m not sure what they were thinking.

Regardless of the mood lighting, the movie sluggishly descends into mediocrity. It’s not the worst thing you could watch on Netflix but it’s not exactly making a case for the service’s originals either.

Score: 68