By John Corrado

★★ (out of 4)

Little Dixie is a brooding revenge thriller that stars Frank Grillo as Doc Alexander, an ex-Special Forces Operative who has helped broker a truce between corrupt Oklahoma governor Richard Jeffs (Eric Dane) and a Mexican drug cartel.

When the deal falls through following the governor’s public celebration of the execution of one of the cartel’s leaders, Doc’s teenaged daughter (Sofia Bryant) is taken as punishment by the cartel’s sadistic killer Cuco (Beau Knapp), sending him on a brutal revenge mission to get her back.

Written and directed by John Swab, Little Dixie has room for political intrigue, but is mostly a dull affair that unfolds with a dour tone that keeps it from offering much entertainment value, beyond Grillo’s appropriately resolute performance.

The premise suggests this had the potential to be somewhat of a pulpy B-movie akin to Liam Neeson’s Taken, but the film is played almost completely straight, despite some cheesy dialogue and more absurd moments that might have worked better as camp (including a questionable detour into a drag bar). The plot also feels like it has some holes (it’s surprisingly easy for characters to cross the border into Mexico, all things considered). The action scenes are fairly competently directed, and do have an economical quality to them, but Little Dixie is a mostly predictable, paint-by-numbers affair that ends up feeling completely one-note.

Bonus Features (DVD):

The DVD includes no bonus features, and no digital copy.

Little Dixie is a Paramount Home Entertainment release. It’s 104 minutes and rated 14A.

Street Date: February 28th, 2023