'Expo' - Review (Netflix)

Brief Synopsis:

Richard Evans, an ex-soldier and part-time chauffeur, is accused of kidnapping a client’s, Mr. Smith's daughter. As well as having to look after his sister, Sarah, he must prove his innocence by retrieving Mr Smith’s daughter.

He also wants to take down a local drug ring. A detective, Moro, is determined to pin the kidnapping on Evans. It becomes personal when his sister gets snatched.

Is it any good?

Good god, no! Expo is worst than Alien Warfare. It is badly written, badly directed, badly edited, the acting is atrocious and the action scenes—ha!—are laughable. There is nothing good about this film. I am writing the review as I watch it otherwise I could not finish it. Onto the review proper.

Spoiler Territory:

Ex-soldier Richard Evans (Derek Davenport) makes ends meet as a chauffeur, picking up rich clients and their charges. He is given a job to pick up Mr. Smith (Tim Davis).

Evans looks after his younger sister, Sarah (Amelia Haberman), their parents died some years prior. Sarah wakes up late and asks her brother to take her to school. He tells her he does not have the time. She leaves the flat.

Caden (Shepsut Wilson), Evans' girlfriend and neighbour, meets him as he is leaving. She tells him she took Sarah to school. Evans goes to see his friend, Majeed (Titus Covington), a local drug dealer.

Titus tells him he can make more money working with him. Evans declines the invitation. He gets a call from his employers, Mr. Smith wants him to pick up his daughter, Lyla (Hayley Vrana) from violin practice.

He gets a call from his sister. She wants him to pick her up. At first he refuses, but after she pleads with him for a bit, he agrees to pick her up. Whilst Evans picks up his sister, Lyla gets kidnapped. Evans arrives late to pick Lyla up and finds her violin. She is gone.

Majeed goes to see a friend. The friend tells him he can make more money selling women and it is less dangerous. Majeed declines. Evans goes to the police but the detective, Moro (Michael Alavarez) believes that he is the most likely suspect. Evans leaves.

Caden comes over to see Evans, the two planning to have a pleasant evening in. They argue because Evans wants to go looking for Lyla himself. Caden thinks it is a bad idea. After they have gone to bed, there is a knock on the door. Evans is arrested. Moro is convinced he kidnapped the girl.

Evans' lawyer, David Peele (Eric Lettman) comes to the station and get him released. Evans returns home. Sarah goes to stay at Caden’s. Evans remembers being taken in by Majeed when he and Sarah were on the streets. He remembers clashing with Majeed over Majeed's dubious earning choices.

Evans goes to see Majeed. Majeed tells him he is thinking of expanding his business and shows Evans a webcam, telling him that he going to start kidnapping girls. Evans freaks out, hitting him. He leaves Majeed’s place.

Chris (Richard Lippert) is auctioning girls over the web. Evans shows Caden what he is accused of being involved in by showing her the webcam. He goes to see a drug dealer, Javier Diaz (Alfonzo Lopez) and gets beat up when he asks about the dealer’s suppler.

Caden gets a friend to patch Evans up. Evans calls an old friend. A doctor, Dr Ekon (Richard Ryan). He asks for a clandestine drug. He is told he cannot it get unless he is returning to service.

Evans tells the doctor that he needs it to save a girl. He remembers how taking too much of the drug almost killed him. The next day, the doctor brings him the pills. The pills make him stronger and given to violent impulses.

Evans goes to a local store and is buying some milk. As he goes to get the milk, Javier comes in to rob the store. Evans beats him up and gets the name of the drug dealer, Carlos Ricardo (Humbetto Roman). He breaks Javier arm. Chris, who has Lyla captive, is torturing her psychologically.

Detective Moro sees Evans loading a bullet proof vest into his car. He still believes that Evans is the man he should be pursuing even after seeing the same dark web video that Evans showed Caden. Moro warns Evans.

Evans leaves Caden and Sarah alone as he goes to try and find Lyla. He goes to find Carlos Ricardo. He confronts Carlos in his house, telling him he just wants to talk. Carlos is not interested and has his henchmen beat him up.

Evans, who had taken a pill, goes into a rage and batters the henchmen. He asks Carlos about the girls. Carlos tells him he is not talking. Evans stabs him in the leg with a pencil. Carlos tells him about Chris and gives him an address.

Two masked men break into Evans’ house and snatch Sarah, knocking Caden unconscious. A battered Evans returns home and is patched up again. He wakes up and asks about Sarah. Caden says that one of the men who took her had a broken arm.

Realising it is Javier, Evans goes and beats on him to find out where Sarah is. Javier tells Evans that she is going to get raped repeatedly. He beats him to death. He returns home. Caden comes over, not wanting to be on her own.

Caden rages at him for refusing to get help from the police. He kicks her out. Evans goes to see Majeed. He wants him to help him get the girl back. Chris streams another video. He tells his audience that he is not selling one girl but two, Sarah being the second girl.

Evans and Majeed sneak up on the address Evans got from Javier. Majeed knocks Evans unconscious. When he wakes up he finds himself tied to a chair. Mated tells him he did it for money and is in the trafficking business. Majeed is about to shoot him but Evans breaks his bonds and beats Majeed to death. He passes out again.

He wakes up at home, having been arrested and taken there by Moro. Moro tells him to stay home whilst he and his team go and try to get the girls back. Moro leaves. Caden persuades a despondent Evans to go and save Sarah.

Moro sees Evans as he goes to find Chris and tells him to stay back. Moro and his team sneak into the house. Chris’ henchmen see them coming and tell Chris. He tells them to distract the police as he takes the girls. Moro fights with one of the henchmen and is soundly beaten. As the henchman is about to kill him, Evans rescues him, beating the henchman.

Moro and Evans go looking for the girls. Chris shoots Evans and takes the girls to a van. Evans, who had been wearing a vest, goes after him. Lyla jumps out of the van, forcing Chris to stop and try to get her back.

A disorientated Evans points a gun at Chris. Chris slaps the gun out of his hand and knocks him to the ground. Sarah gets out of the van and beats Chris up. Evans shoots him in the head.

Mr. Smith turns up. He has the same face as Chris. Chris was a clone. The whole, elaborate story had been set up to get Evans back into military service, him getting a full pardon in exchange for his return to duty. The end.

Expo is awful. It is an absolute abomination of a film. Written and directed by Joseph Mbah, one can only hope someone tells him to stop. Stop making films. Jesus Christ! This film is terrible.

No part of the film is good. The acting is, without exception, terrible. The script is so bad that if they had improvised every scene it could not possibly have been worse.

Basics, such as framing, story, visual flow, discernible sound, are all missing. Shot selection is bad, the story makes no sense, the music is horrible, it is badly lit, badly edited and just an all around mess. It is is not even bad enough to be entertaining.

The actors in this film are so uniformly woeful that I cannot actually single out an individual as particularly terrible. The real star or villain however, is Mbah. He is listed as a writer, director and cinematographer. Charlatan should be added to that list.

Expo is a travesty of a film and Netflix needs take a long hard look at themselves if they are going to keep asking people to pay for this sort of tripe. With the impending arrival of Disney plus and Apple TV, Netflix, with a head start on those two services, need to up their quality control.

Do not watch Expo. You’re welcome.