Daily Times

There’s nothing, per se, wrong with a first-time director wearing their influences on their sleeve; what matters is their ability to then go beyond imitating others and develop a voice of their own. Unfortunately, Kick-Ass and Hot Tub Time Machine actor Clark Duke never quite gets there with his feature debut on Arkansas, an idiosyncratic neo-noir that plays out like a cross between the Coen Brothers and Tarantino’s movies from the ’90s. On paper, its plot has all the ingredients it needs to make this mashup of creative styles work, yet it just doesn’t come together. Arkansas struggles to find an internal rhythm – resulting in a laid-back crime film that suffers from flat execution, in spite of some bright spots. Adapted from the 2009 novel by John Brandon, the film starts off by introducing Kyle Ribb, a jaded young drug runner from the South who works for a mysterious man know simply as Frog.