The Tax Collector | 2020 | NR | – 5.10.10

Why is “The Tax Collector” rated NR? The MPAA has not rated this film. The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a few kissing scenes and some nudity, many scenes of graphic violence with guns and knives and other weapons leading to many deaths with bloody results shown, a human sacrifice, and over 140 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Two gangsters (Bobby Soto and Shia LaBeouf) spend their days driving around LA to collect coerced payments from merchants and other gangsters for their boss. Then a ruthless rival moves in to claim their territory, a brutal gangland war ensues and families become collateral damage. Also with Cinthya Carmona, Jose Conejo Martin, Cheyenne Rae Hernandez, Cle Sloan, Richard Mesquita, George Lopez and Brian Martin Ortega. Directed by David Ayer. Several lines of dialogue are spoken in Spanish without translation. [Running Time: 1:35]

The Tax Collector SEX/NUDITY 5

 – A topless woman is shown and we see her bare breasts and abdomen. A badly wounded and blood-soaked man is shown presumably nude (we see his bare chest, abdomen and legs). A woman is completely covered with body paint and patterns and it is not clear whether she is fully nude under the paint (we see outlines of her breasts but no nipple detail). A woman wearing a low-cut, short dress (we see deep cleavage and bare legs to the near hips) opens the door of a restaurant and two men enter. A woman wears low-cut dresses that reveal cleavage in several scenes. A few men are shown shirtless in several scenes (we see bare chests, abdomens and backs). A woman wears a low-cut top and shorts that reveal cleavage and bare legs to the upper thighs.
► A husband and his wife are shown in bed in a few scenes and the man is shirtless (his bare back and shoulders are seen) and the woman wears a nightgown (we see cleavage and bare shoulders); in one scene the man kisses the woman’s chest as she talks to him. A man and a woman kiss in a few scenes. A husband and his wife dance, he dips her and they kiss.
► A man shows another man pictures of women on his phone and we see cleavage, bare abdomens, buttocks and backs, as he describes sex acts and birth control methods. A woman says that a man gave her STDs.

The Tax Collector VIOLENCE/GORE 10

 – A man is shown completely blood-soaked as a woman beats his legs with a hammer (we see what could be exposed bone from the leg wounds, or large nails through the shins, and blood sprays on the woman as she hits him); a man steps on the man’s head and stomps on him repeatedly (below the frame) spraying blood on a plastic curtain in front of them and presumably killing him. A man performs a ritual that includes a human sacrifice: we see a woman slash the throat of another woman allowing the blood to pour over the man as he chants; before the sacrifice, the man stabs a chicken with a dagger and we see blood on its feathers.
► Armed men enter a room shooting and we see men inside struck and blood sprays as they fall dead; one man is wounded and taken in a van where he is questioned, held out of the van as it drives (we see the bloody remains of his face with teeth exposed) and he is then shot in the head and thrown out of the van onto the road. Many men arrive at a business where men are gathered inside, an explosive is thrown into the building, men with automatic weapons shoot into the building and we see men being struck as blood sprays, one man has a bloody head wound, another man has a bloody abdominal wound and a woman walks through men lying on the ground and shoots a couple in the head; one wounded man is taken away by two gunmen. Armed men arrive at a house where they fight with armed people there; one man fights with a man and a woman, and the woman stabs him in the leg, he knocks out the man, then stabs the woman in the chest (we see a bloody wound) and beats the man in the head with a gun butt. A man fights with several men as he enters a house and strangles one man with a strap around his neck and pulling him backwards over a railing (we hear a crack); he bursts into a room where a man and a woman are and shoots the woman (we see her with a bloody wound), he fights with the man and they punch each other repeatedly, one wraps a towel around the other’s face and punches him several times, the other man hits him in the head with a piece of a toilet porcelain and then beats him repeatedly in the head with a sink (below the frame, blood splatters and we hear crunching), and a candle tips over and the room catches fire. A man beats another man with the first punch dropping him below the frame and we hear several additional blows land. A man with a very bloody and swollen face is shown tied into a chair after a beating that we do not witness. A man presses a tattoo needle into another man’s skin and we see ink mixed with blood as he questions him. A man holds a gun in another man’s mouth and he pleads for his life and tells the other man that his daughter is sick with leukemia. A man holds a gun to another man’s head. A man holds an electric drill to another man’s chest threateningly. A man with a bloody head wound runs through a street and punches a man in a pickup truck, pulls him out of the vehicle and steals it, speeding away. A man finds a woman dead with her throat cut and lying in a large pool of blood; he carries her to a tub where he washes her and we see him lying in the tub with her (both are clothed) and the water is stained with blood.
► Two men arrive at a restaurant where a man with an automatic weapon stands on the roof and others stand inside the building as the men approach a man seated at a table; they talk and another man joins them and threatens one of them (the two men leave). A woman threatens to firebomb a man’s house with his family inside. A man calls another man and tells him that he has the man’s two children. A man enters a house where other men seem threatening; he speaks with another man that agrees to help him.
► A woman opens the lid of a cooler and we see a man’s severed head and hand in it. A man tells another man that he has seen men skinned alive, dipped in acid and had their legs chain sawed off, as we see scenes of blood splattered rooms where the acts have taken place (we do not see the acts). A man threatens to put another man’s face in a fire. A man slaps another man in the face.
► A man puts guns in his waistband as other men enter a business and they talk; a reference is made to the police having killed a man the night before. A man asks another man, “Are we killing anybody today?” and explains that he has his new shoes on. A man tells another man that gangs pay a 30% tax to him. A man talks about spending his whole life “watching for the bullet.” A man tells another man, “Nobody’s untouchable.”
► A woman tells a man that her father would get really drunk and beat her mother with a chair until it broke and that she went to find the man to kill her father. A woman tells a man about a nightmare she had about her children drowning and that she could not save them (we see the scene as she describes it). A man says that something smells like a dead body.
► A man imagines another man dragging him with a strap around his neck along the floor and we see the man bloodied from an apparent beating. We see drugs, guns and stacks of money piled on a bed. A man pulls stacks of money out of a tire. A young girl tells her father that she has a wiggly tooth and he pulls it out with his hands (we see no blood). A man spits as he leaves a room.

The Tax Collector LANGUAGE 10

 – About 145 F-words and its derivatives, 1 obscene hand gesture, 5 sexual references, 29 scatological terms, 10 anatomical terms, 8 mild obscenities, 1 derogatory term for African-American people, name-calling (Creeper, devil, ghetto friends, psychic, dog, satanic, street terrorist, weird, Mexican Kardashians, big bad gangster, fool, stupid, crazy, sick, demonic, pile of meat), exclamations (bounce, what’s up, shut the [F-word deleted] up), 8 religious exclamations (e.g. God, Thank God, Oh God In Heaven, All Mighty God, people genuflect in several scenes, a man makes the sign of the cross on his children’s foreheads in a few of scenes, two men debate the existence of God). | profanity glossary |

The Tax Collector SUBSTANCE USE

 – A woman smokes a drug in a business and a man yells at her, a woman nearly lights a drugged cigarette at a house party and a man reprimands her, a woman pours capsules out of a cup, a man takes a capsule (it’s not clear what it is), and a man talks about people taking LSD and molly. A woman drinks a beer, we see many empty beer bottles and plastic cups are shown strewn around a business after an implied night of partying, people drink at a house party, men drink shots of liquor in a few scenes, and people in a club are shown drinking and smoking. A man smokes cigarettes in many scenes throughout the movie, and a few men smoke cigars in several scenes.

The Tax Collector DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Family, honor, gangs, greed, violent sub-cultures, children being forced into roles that they don’t want.

The Tax Collector MESSAGE

 – Your family cannot escape the effects of your life of violence, no matter how hard you try.