The Locator (2006)

The Locator (2006)- * * *

Directed by: Andre Buckner

Starring: Andre Buckner, Robert Gresham, Robert Mayo, Cristina Kellogg, and LaDonna Jackson

There are other men, and then there's BRAXTON (Buckner). Evidently, his "objective is to remove any threats to the safety and stability of the United States." At least that's not a vague objective. Many of said threats appear in Alpharetta, Georgia. Who knew? Max Demont (Gresham) is your classic Evil Whitey and he is an abuser in his relationship with Sara (Kellogg). There's also some intrigue and government assassin backstabbing, best exemplified by the line of dialogue "Lyles ordered me to take out Rivers". Lyles (Mayo) is the guy who is trying to control Braxton. NO ONE controls Braxton. After some shootouts, car chases, fights, and romance with Sasha (Jackson), Braxton comes to the final conflict. But isn't the real conflict who Braxton is, really? Or perhaps not. LOCATE this film tonight and find out for yourself!


The Buck(ner) stops here as director/star/co-writer/co-producer/co-everything Andre Buckner turns in his defining character, Braxton. Both Toni and Tamar Braxton were very hot at the time, so he was possibly riding on the cultural zeitgeist. Plus it has that "X" in the name that makes it sound cool. Just ask David Broadnax (anybody remember Mister Deathman)?


Like The Strike, The Locator has a down-and-dirty, local/regional feel to it, which we like. But this time Buckner is in control, presumably having learned from his prior directors such as Donald Farmer, and he felt ready to make films on his own. Getting the negative out of the way, The Locator falls prey - and falls pretty hard at times - to some of the standard low-budget pitfalls that can plague productions like this:

Very low or nonexistent lighting, and some of the worst sound quality we've ever heard. Many times it sounds like people are speaking through the McDonald's drive-thru speaker. Then they encased the speaker in a lucite box. Then threw it in the ocean. Which is so much the pity, because one of the best things about regional cinema is getting to hear people's local accents. So many people in Hollywood try so hard to get rid of their accents. In productions like this, they don't care. They're probably not even thinking about that. Which is great: Robert Mayo as Lyles has a pronounced Georgia accent and it's a joy to hear (when you can hear it).


It also suffers from repetition: seemingly every other scene is an exterior shot of the city of Atlanta with some hip hop beats playing behind it. We KNOW they're in Atlanta. I get that they thought that this might "open up" the film, but they did it too many times, to the point of ridiculousness. And some of the fight choreography isn't exactly Corey Yuen-level. But isn't that all part of the fun? Andre and the rest of the Buckner family (check out the credits, it's practically a Buckner family reunion) MADE this movie, put their hearts into it, and got it into stores, and now streaming. Shouldn't that be applauded, not demonized?



Even on this rock-bottom budget, they maintained the mainstays: a solitary hero determined to get the bad guys, "my last job" (which is funny considering there's a Locator 2), the car chase that includes Fast Motion, the conspiracy angle, the scene where one of the characters reads the hero's CV: ("purple heart, bronze star, special ops...") the "Disc" MacGuffin that everyone is looking for - and the classic parking lot fight. The homemade nature comes to the fore in some of the more bizarre aspects: at one point, Max yells at Sara, "Get out of the mirror!" (?????), and an audacious scene where a shooter in Georgia is, presumably, killing off people in Israel (?????). The movie even starts on a scene like this: a SWAT team surrounds a house and the only thing anybody says, over and over again, is "Yep". Then it goes right to a scene of meatheads inexplicably flexing.

We applaud Andre and the rest of the Buckners for getting off their duffs and actually making The Locator. Many people talk about making movies; they DID it. The results are not perfect. But in those imperfections, we find humanity and the magic of moviemaking. We look forward to seeing what Mr. Buckner and company do with Locator 2 Braxton Returns (and no, that's not a run-on sentence; that's the proper name of the film). In the sequel, we may find Braxton locating (did he Locate anyone here at all?) once again!

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty