The very sad
thing about this movie is the writing. We’ve all seen this before: a top
security agency—in this case, Interpol—must transport a key witness who happens
to be one of the henchmen of a high-ranking government official. The witness is
set to testify against this official. A security unit is assigned to protect
the witness, but the official has eyes inside the agency and learns the
transport route to take it down and kill the witness.
There’s always
one person who survives alongside the witness—always one. You must understand
there can’t be two survivors and the witness; that wouldn’t add to the dramatic
effect that the writers of such cliché movies learned in “Lack Originality
101.”
The lone
survivor and the witness escape to some safe haven, and the lone survivor
reaches out to someone for help with the transport.
If you haven’t
seen a movie like this before, I’d have to say you must be living under a rock.
The one thing this movie had going for it is the comedic tone it uses to carry
us through this cliché roulette. The difference between this movie and others
like it is the pairing of the lead actors.
Samuel L.
Jackson and Ryan Reynolds are the pair in this movie, playing Darius Kincaid
and Michael Bryce, respectively. Their chemistry is on point, and their first
meeting in the movie—after about twenty-seven minutes—is a good show.
In this movie,
the lone survivor happens to be Michael’s ex-girlfriend (Elodie Yung, who we
fondly know as Elektra Natchios in Netflix’s Daredevil and The
Defenders series). It’s easy to guess this twist—you don’t have to be a
rocket scientist to figure out how they were going to tie Michael into this
rendezvous.
The movie also
has issues with the mental capability of its characters, like the girlfriend
forgetting that the safe house will trigger an alarm when entered.
When it comes to
action, the movie doesn’t lack it. As for the directing (the director was
Patrick Hughes, who also directed The Expendables 3 (2014)), based on
what he had to work with, I’m not sure how to rate his effort here.
I did enjoy the
ride because the chemistry between the two leads is something I think more
writers need to explore—with a better script and a better director. Regardless,
I can’t, in good conscience, rate this movie higher than a five. I also
wouldn’t advise anyone to waste time on it. If you miss seeing this movie, you
haven’t missed anything at all.
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