Trap House (2025) Review!!

Synopsis – DEA agent and partner pursue thieves: their own rebellious teens, who began robbing cartel using parent tactics and classified intel.

My Take – Considering how their previous collaboration, Stuber (2019), was quite lighthearted, I expected the reunion between Dave Bautista and director Michael Dowse to be somewhere on the same lines, particularly given its synopsis about teens stealing from the cartel without their DEA parents knowing.

But what I didn’t expect was an intense early 2000s styled action thriller, which someone like Michael Bay could have made at the time, with nods to family dynamics similar to what co-writer Gary Scott Thompson has been selling in the Fast and the Furious series.

Backed by all familiar trappings like shootouts, big explosions, and high stakes, along with the occasional flashes of R-rated violence to acknowledge the life-and-death stakes the kids have waded into, we have in hand a film that keeps you thoroughly entertained, especially, if you can get past the more ludicrous parts of its premise.

Yes, like most reviews, I too found the narrative rushed in terms of loose ends and character development, and snickered when it ended on a ridiculous note seemingly setting up a sequel, yet, it’s hard to deny that the film possessed a kinetic energy, and along with its performances, pacing, and especially Bautista’s presence, it ended up being worth a watch. It’s an odd film, but for what it is, it’s a mostly fun one.

The story follows a group of teenagers led by Cody (Jack Champion), who along with Deni (Sophia Lillis), Yvonne (Whitney Peak), Kyle (Zaire Adams) and Jesse (Blu del Barrio), living in El Paso, who along with maintaining their grades have an extra worry in their heads: their parents are members of an undercover DEA task force. And considering the high-volatile nature of their jobs, they are all expecting the news of their demise all the time.

Something which comes true when Jesse’s father dies, in a raid, spearheaded by Cody’s widowed dad Ray (Dave Bautista) and his genial partner Andre (Bobby Cannavale), on a gas station that houses a tunnel direct to Mexico. And in the ensuing chaos, a sniper from across the border kills one of them.

Though Ray and the rest initially set up a GoFundMe campaign to help Jesse and his now widowed mother financially, as an act of silent revenge, using the non-lethal methods taught by their parents, the teens decide to go after the drug traffickers themselves by raiding Mexican cartel trap houses and robbing their mules, using equipment borrowed from their parents including night-vision goggles and beanbag shotguns.

And while their first raid proves successful, they only net $497, leading them to go bigger and bolder with their illicit operations, not just leaving an increasingly befuddled Ray and Andre wonder what the hell is going on, but also gaining the attention of the Benito (Tony Dalton) and Natalia (Kate del Castillo), the psychotic cartel siblings who run the nefarious drug cartel from Ciudad Juarez.

Indeed, the premise pushes a little too much against the bounds of realism, but director Dowse, who also helmed the underrated gem Goon (2011), keeps the story moving at a brisk pace.

Sharing DNA of a classic heist flick, one moment, the teens are having fun, complete with a tacked-on high school romance between Cody and a new girl, Teresa (Inde Navarrette), and then they are trying to steal from some seriously bad people who aren’t afraid to kill. But somehow it is easy to root for them, mainly as the script takes time to lay out the teens’ motivations as well.

They don’t decide to start robbing a cartel because they ran out of allowances. Instead, it’s because the DEA couldn’t support their friend’s family after his father was KIA. While the kids aren’t layered characters, there’s nothing obnoxious about their friendship. They feel like genuine buddies who look after each other.

Also, director Dowse handles the action sequences proficiently, while screenwriters Tom O’Connor and Gary Scott Thompson keep things a mix between going fully gritty or fully comedic, taking extra care to show these kids are not professionals, and that their success is more of a lucky break than anything else.

Performance wise, Dave Bautista once again demonstrates that he’s fully capable of handling more ambitious assignments. Ray could have easily been a cheesy action hero, but Bautista plays him as a grounded father and agent. Jack Champion makes for a likable de facto lead, and is well supported by Sophia Willis, Whitney Peak and Zaire Adams, all standing out in their own ways.

Bobby Cannavale in a fairly standard role, makes for a great foil to Bautista, but deserved more screen time. Tony Dalton and Kate del Castillo bring real menace to the proceedings, replaying the best hits of being typecast as cartel bosses. Inde Navarrette ends up surprising in the final act. On the whole, ‘Trap House‘ is a harmless, action-packed thriller that may work as a pleasant surprise for anyone looking for a low-rent genre picture.