Criminal Activities

Four former classmates come together for the funeral of a friend and, over the course of their reunion, one of them pitches an investment that promises easy money. They pool their funds, but the deal collapses and the money disappears. It emerges that one of the four borrowed his share from a mob boss named Eddie, and the debt now hangs over all of them. To settle what they owe, Eddie pushes the group into a kidnapping that pulls them deeper into the underworld.

Jackie Earle Haley directed Criminal Activities, his first feature behind the camera after a long career as an actor, working from a screenplay by Robert Lowell. The cast is led by Dan Stevens, Michael Pitt, Christopher Abbott and Rob Brown as the four friends, with John Travolta as the gangster Eddie and Haley himself appearing as Gerry. Produced by Wayne Allan Rice, Howard Burd and Micah Sparks, the film runs 94 minutes and was made for about 7 million dollars.

Reception was modest across the board. On IMDb it holds 5.8 out of 10 from roughly 9,700 votes, and on TMDB it sits at 5.9 out of 10 from around 328 votes. A critics' rating of 5.8 out of 10 from 20 reviews places professional assessment in line with how audiences responded, with neither group rating the thriller highly.