While actors Robert De Niro and John Cusack are still hot commodities in Hollywood, their bigger films have been balanced in recent years by a handful of indie films, usually in the crime and thriller genres. I have to admit, I had no idea that David Grovic’s directorial debut The Bag Man even existed, but now we have a trailer for it, and it looks almost exactly like what you’d expect it to be, if not a tad flashier and less direct-to-DVD.
Via IndieWire, this trailer partly documents one of the goofiest hairdos of De Niro’s career. Not in the beginning, when he’s making me hungry by using foodstuffs as a blueprint for the mini-heist he’s hiring Cusack to perform. But once the assumed double crossing starts happening and the pressure is on, his hair expands. In fact, take a bigger peek at that big old head of hair in the still below.
Cusack is forced to go to a shitty motel – by the by, the film originally went under the title Motel – to pick up a mystery bag for De Niro. What I’m assuming is supposed to be a routine grab-and-go is made complicated by the appearance of a femme fatale dressed as Wonder Woman, played by Brazilian up-and-comer Rebecca Da Costa. She may or may not know something about the bag, but it is quickly confirmed she is on the run from a bunch of men who want to kill her. And instead of leaving her to take a couple of bullets, Cusack takes her under his gun-blasting wing and the two make a run for it, leaving De Niro’s crime boss more than a little peeved.
I’m not sure if it was a Taxi Driver in-joke or anything, but it was particularly cheesy when De Niro blurts out, "Who do you think you’re talking to? You don’t talk to me. I talk to you." It’s so close to, "You talking to me?" that it seems impossible to be unrelated.
There’s also a poster to go along with the trailer, but it’s of the Photoshopped variety that doesn’t do much for the imagination. I do like the neon-lit title, however.
So it’s probably just like every run-of-the-mill thriller that also co-stars Crispin Glover and Sticky Fingaz, but there’s something about it that makes me know I’ll end up watching The Bag Man as soon as I can. Cusack and De Niro on opposite ends of the same slimy side of the road just sounds like a good time to me. You might be able to find it during its limited theatrical run starting February 28, while others will have to wait until it nabs a home release. Thankfully we'll be able to see them later this year in more acclaimed films, as Cusack is rumored to play a part in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, while De Niro will train Roberto Duran in the upcoming biopic Hands of Stone.
