Five years after critics wrote it off, David Ayer’s action crime movie The Tax Collector is finally being paid its dues on free streaming. Just like many other overlooked and mostly forgotten movies, Tubi has become the stomping ground of films that have found a whole new audience years after their initial release, and this 2020 thriller is no exception after climbing to #2 on the Tubi Chart.
At just 96 minutes, The Tax Collector is a quick and brutal blast of Ayer’s usual brand of no-nonsense action that has been hugely popular in recent movies, such as Jason Statham hit The Beekeeper. However, when it was originally released, the movie was mostly ignored, partly because of controversially including the out-of-favor Shia LaBeouf, and largely due to arriving during the Covid pandemic. Even with just a $4 million budget, the film’s total box office of $1.3 million made it a huge flop.
The Tax Collector stars Bobby Soto as family-man enforcer David and Shia LaBeouf as his volatile partner “Creeper,” who face an uncertain future when a former rival crime lord returns to encroach on their patch. Along with a lackluster box office, critics hated the movie, granting it just a 17% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Whether slamming the film’s use of “a white boy performing offensive gangster cosplay,” or being a “violent gore-soaked portrait of gang life with nothing new to say,” there were very few positives to be found in reviews of the movie. Jackie K. Cooper of Jackiekcooper.com went into full “tax” mode by reviewing it as:
“It taxed my eyes to watch this movie; it taxed my brain to make sense of this movie; it taxed my physical body to endure this movie.”
‘The Tax Collector’ Pleased David Ayer’s Fandom
RLJE Films
Like most directors, David Ayer has found his niche in the world as the creator of movies that usually please action fans with balls-to-the-wall explosions and gun-fights galore, and if there is one thing that can be relied on, that is if critics hate an action movie, chances are that audiences are going to love it.
This was certainly true of The Tax Collector, with the film gaining a 73% rating from audiences and being praised for exactly the same reasons most critics gave for their “rotten” reviews.
As one reviewer put it, “It gave me what I wanted to kill 2 hours. Gritty, violent 80s type street gang stuff.” Nick S took great pleasure in blasting critics’ inability to see the merits in the movie. “I think the “famous movie critics” that gave this movie a low score are ignorant morons. This film was amazing. The acting was brilliant. The story and plot were thrilling. Finally, the writing that made the 90s movies so great has come back to us.”
Of course, that is the beauty of movies, as everyone has their own opinions, own tastes, and own way of assessing whether a film is good or bad. Put someone who loves action movies in front of a slow period drama, and the reviews are probably not going to be stellar, but give them a film where everything ends up in burning ruins and body parts are strewn everywhere, and chances are the reviews will be much better.
For The Tax Collector, its appearance on the Tubi chart five years after its original release, and a short stint on Hulu, is a sign that every movie can find an audience waiting for it when it lands on free streaming.
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