This is one of those rare movies that the studio didn’t screen for the critics, which is never a good sign. I was looking forward to it, since the trailers were funny. Although it’s odd that one humorous scene in the trailer, in which Aubrey Plaza asks if Jason Statham “got inside” – was edited in the movie where she is cut off in the middle of saying the word “sexually.” There were other edits that were done poorly, like a flashback to a fighting scene. But the bigger problem with this film is that it feels like James Bond-lite. And I’ve come to expect more from Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, RockNRolla, and even The Gentleman a few years ago showed he still has it).
So, we get a movie with a goofy title, where we watch Statham do what he always does on screen – punch and head-butt people with his bald head. Yet he’s not as charismatic as he should have been, and you don’t buy for a second that he is a master at chess or a lover of fine wines, that demands the best bottles on flights to his missions (impossible!).
Then you have to listen to Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride) talk like he’s doing a parody of Q from the old James Bond films (and Grant sounds like he’s doing a Michael Caine impersonation). Aubrey Plaza is great with her snark, but she needed a few more funny lines than this script provided. Hugh Grant would be perfect as the billionaire bad guy Greg Simmonds, who chomps cigars, wears oversized prescription sunglasses, and is menacing…but it’s the type of character that is just played out at this point.
Josh Hartnett (who was a bit of fun in Die Hart recently), plays the arrogant and insecure actor that the crew need to bring in, because Simmonds is a big fan of his work. And at that point, it becomes a similar premise to the underrated Nic Cage movie from last year – The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (the movie also borrows a bit from Midnight Run, Goldfinger, and a few other better films).
Ritchie used to give us edgier, more hip films. This is formulaic, and only mildly interesting. At times it almost felt like it was trying to be a satire of these types of films (that was actually done well with Statham before, in the Melissa McCarthy film Spy).
The plot involves Britain’s MI6 operatives trying to retrieve a device that was stolen (although nobody knows exactly what it is, only that it’s being sold on the black market for $10 billion). Righteous bucks! And since Orson Fortune (boy is that a stupid name Statham is saddled with) doesn’t have his usual crew, they bring in J.J. Davis (rapper Bugzy Malone) and an American named Sarah Fidel, who is a computer whiz (although it’s hard to buy her as the alluring femme fatale that Simmonds just has to have). A lot of Fortune’s former crew is now working for “the competition” so not only is he contending with dangerous bad guys, but other agents are trying to get the device.
Of course, we get scenes where everyone ends up going to various places, like Turkey and Cannes…and lots of Middle Eastern bad guys with beards are dispensed with.
It gets credit for the cinematography of Alan Stewart, shot on luxurious yachts and locales. Great production, with great set designs, action pieces, and effects.
I did think the scene with a candy apple red, cherried-out old Mustang should have been shot better (and more time given to the ‘62 Corvette that was next to it in the garage). And as a cigar smoker, I loved Grant always with a stick in hand, although it’s hard to believe he’d be smoking a stogie around expensive art [side note: they make a reference to the artist – Rhed – who is actually the artist son of Ritchie and Madonna].
The movie needed a lot more humor like we had in one scene where a bad guy is thrown off a building by Fortune, and what is said when J.J. finds him.
I don’t think anybody will be mad they sat through this, but they’ll certainly be a tad disappointed.
2 stars out of 5.