1992 - Mark Reviews Movies

1992, Lionsgate

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 29, 2024

Set on April 29 of the title year, 1992 begins just before four police officers are acquitted of charges of using excessive force against Rodney King—a violent incident that was recorded and made public for everyone to see. We could discuss the attack, the simmering tensions between communities and the local police, the riots or uprising that resulted from the verdict, or pretty much anything of relevance in regards to the background of co-writer/director Ariel Vromen's movie, but what would be the point? The filmmakers certainly have no interest in doing any such thing.

The real question is what the point of setting this thriller in this place at this specific time in history could possibly be. Everything of note takes place in the backdrop of this story, which basically uses the civil unrest as a plot device.

For a team of thieves, it's an excuse to rob a factory of its most precious commodity without anyone noticing or caring what's happening. For a father and son, the strife in the streets is a reason for them to gradually and unwittingly find themselves in the middle of the robbers' heist.

The screenplay by Vromen and Sascha Penn offers little insight, context, or consideration for this event in history. The thinking behind taking this history and ignoring it is inexplicable, especially when the plot itself could have been set at any time and in any place without anyone believing that it might have benefited from carelessly injecting some matter of importance into it. Movies like the one this Vromen's turns out to be are made all the time, and whatever supposed significance the setting provides it isn't worth how confounding that setting makes the end result.

The story really is as simple as a heist story. We follow two different parties over the course of the day, with Tyrese Gibson's Mercer as the focal point of one and a team of crooks led by Scott Eastwood's Riggin as the other. Mercer has recently been released from prison, presumably on drug charges, and has probational custody of his teenage son Antoine (Christopher A'mmanuel), whose mother and grandmother have died in a car crash.

The father has a job working maintenance at a factory that manufactures catalytic converters in a remote, industrial area of the city. As he goes to work and Antoine heads off to school, news reports of a verdict in the case against those cops play out on TV screens, and both Mercer and the plant's security guard Joe (Michael Beasley) know that, if the four men are found not guilty, things in the city are going to turn quickly.

Meanwhile, Riggin and his friend Copeland (Clé Bennett) have their eyes on the factory—mainly a vault that contains about $10 million in platinum. This could be the final job the two have been hoping for years to find, and it could mean a good life for the two, Riggin's younger brother Dennis (Dylan Arnold), and the brothers' father Lowell (the late Ray Liotta). The father thinks the robbery waon't succeed, but once the cops become occupied by protests and looting throughout L.A., Riggin realizes this is the team's best opportunity.

This becomes a matter of two very different goals once the unrest begins. The movie follows Mercer, as he searches the neighborhood for Antoine, who wants to participate in the uprising but can't quite bring himself to do anything except watch. Joe has agreed to let the two stay at the factory until things calm, so father and son have to avoid the violence of the unrest, stop some gang members from stealing a couple's car, and face the scrutiny of a pair of suspicious cops.

This subplot is at least something specific to the historical event, but even then, it's ultimately just in service of getting Mercer and Antoine to the plant—but not too quickly, so that some of the thieves can show just how desperate and ruthless they are before the innocent bystanders arrive. A lot of time is dedicated to watching the robbers pull off their heist, leaving a not-quite-dead body and an injured crew member in their wake.

What does this robbery have to do with what's happening miles away? The answer is nothing, of course, which makes the entire premise of the movie feel exploitative. Indeed, the concept of 1992 becomes useless when the third act is set almost entirely in the factory, results in a showdown between the two parties, and ends up with a car chase through empty streets. This might have succeeded as a generic thriller, but we'll never know, given the unnecessary baggage the filmmakers gave themselves.

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