Kyle (Liam Hemsworth), a proud bottom-rung drug dealer, slithers a few steps up the crime ladder after being placed under the tutelage of Park Ranger Bright (John Malkovich) and then partnered with blithesome jerk Swin (Clark Duke) to drive deliveries across state lines. (The opening passage had me hooked — or maybe I’m just a sucker for Malkovich.) Kyle’s preoccupation with uncovering the identity of their boss, a pawn shop owner known only as Frog (Vince Vaughn), leads to a series of flashbacks that prove repetition is the key to learning. (The plot wasn’t so convoluted that we needed a third act recap to bring a character — and by extension, the audience — up to date.) Relatively speaking, Duke had a meteoric spurt in movies (Superbad, Kick Ass, Hot Tub Time Machine) before settling into life on the small screen. For his directorial debut, the co-scripter and Arkansas native saw to it that Swin would be a change of pace from the pasty-faced nerds to whom we’ve grown accustomed. He should have spent more time on a co-star who supplies more of a deadpan table-reading than straight-out performance. Eden Brolin, Vivica A. Fox, Barry Primus, Michael Kenneth Williams, and Brad William Henke round out the first-rate supporting cast. (2020) — Scott Marks
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