I had never heard about the 2021 thriller "The Gateway" from writers Alex Felix Bendaña, Andrew Levitas and Michele Civetta prior to sitting down and watching it here in 2022. All I knew about it was the fact that the movie Olivia Munn and Frank Grillo on the cast list.

The storyline was actually enjoyable. Sure, it wasn't the most innovative or creative of plot concepts, but the storyline made for good entertainment, and that is what matters to me when I sit down and watch a movie. So the writers definitely put together something that worked here in "The Gateway".

The narrative was adequately paced, some slow moments and some fast moments throughout the course of the movie, so it was a pretty nice enough movie experience.

"The Gateway" does have a good cast ensemble. I am not overly familiar with Shea Whigham, but he did perform quite well in this movie, despite of having just a single grimace to put on in every single scene. So there was lacking a bit of facial expressions of emotions and such, but it seemed okay to the character, given the backstory and addiction to alcohol. Olivia Munn was definitely nicely cast and performed quite well, and it was nice to see Bruce Dern in the movie. It was a shame that Frank Grillo only had a small role in the movie, as he could have spruced it up quite a lot. Zach Avery definitely put on a noteworthy performance here.

All in all then "The Gateway" was a good movie. I was definitely entertained by it.

My rating of director Michele Civetta's 2021 movie "The Gateway" lands on a six out of ten stars.

I only watched this movie because Frank Grillo appeared in it. Why did the picture look like it's b-rate and why would such a great actor take part in this?

It could have had more action due to the story line but it was slow and dragging by. I only finished it because I paid 5.99 to rent it on Prime.

I'm

If you are cynic, you may say: of course the social worker is going to help Olivia Munns character ... or show interest in her ... case. All jokes aside though, the movie walks that fine line quite well. Especially because the actors are doing their best to avoid as many cliches as possible. It does not work always, but it works enough for the movie to ... work.

That being said, the thriller aspect of it is quite predictable. But there is enough suspense and action to keep this fresh or at least exciting enough until the end. Nothing special, but nothing bad either ... somewhere in the middle.