AllMovie

TropiX is a rough-hewn little indie, with a few appealing performances and some clever dialogue helping to compensate for sloppy plotting, one embarrassingly bare-bones action set piece, and the fact that the filmmakers don't have much to say. The action scene in question, in which one character (or rather, a poorly constructed dummy meant to represent the character) hangs, for what seems an eternity, from a flying helicopter, is just the sort of thing that low-budget thriller makers need to write out of their scripts. But it's not as though anything else going on in the movie makes much sense. Screenwriter Livia Linden and her co-director, Percy Angress, get by mostly on tone (nicely sardonic) and apparent unbridled enthusiasm. Performances are adequate, though Owen Wilson imitator Ryan Barton-Grimley is a standout, and the lovely Michelle Jones makes would-be femme fatale Solange a more interesting character than the writing deserves. Solange's intrusive voice-over is too clever by half. The gorgeous Costa Rican setting and the percolating salsa score (by Walter Flores) promise more site-specific interest than the film delivers. Despite all the sex, gunplay, and self-conscious tough guy (and girl) posturing, one of the most interesting sequences in the film is basically a cutaway to an ordinary workday on a banana plantation. Unfortunately, for the most part, the filmmakers seem hell-bent on eliding fascinating local detail in order to keep their rickety roller-coaster plot on track.