Jason Statham Archives

Review: ‘Shelter’ (2026), starring Jason Statham

February 2, 2026

by Carla Hay

Jason Statham and Bodhi Rae Breathnach in “Shelter” (Photo by Daniel Smith/Black Bear Pictures)

“Shelter” (2026)

Directed by Ric Roman Waugh

Culture Representation: Taking place in the United Kingdom, the action film “Shelter” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A former MI6 agent, who faked his own death and lived for 10 years as a recluse, comes out of hiding when the U.K. government finds out he’s still alive, and he has to protect himself and an orphaned teenage girl from getting killed by assassins.

Culture Audience: “Shelter” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Jason Statham and derivative action movies where a “hero” puts himself in charge of rescuing a “damsel in distress.”

Billy Nighy and Jason Statham in “Shelter” (Photo by Daniel Smith/Black Bear Pictures)

Compared to other predictable Jason Statham action flicks, “Shelter” is woefully deficient. His “hero” character is protecting an orphaned teenage girl he barely knows. He drags her into a violent mess instead of dropping her off at an orphanage. The girl he’s protecting isn’t a family member, nor she is the one being hunted by the story’s villains.

No, she’s just a girl who is forced to tag along when the “hero” gets caught up in the ridiculous shootouts and dangerous car chases that inevitably ensue. Why? Because Statham’s “hero” character in the movie has an ego that’s so huge, he can’t imagine anyone else protecting this teenage girl, even though he’s the one who’s actually the target of assassins.

By forcing this girl to go on the run with him, the “hero” actually makes himself look more conspicuous to the people who are trying to find him. It’s not the only thing that doesn’t make sense in this lazy and derivative movie. “Shelter” has contradictions galore in its villain motive plot about the United Kingdom government using advanced technology as surveillance of the “hero” and other U.K. residents.

Directed by Ric Roman Waugh and written by Ward Parry, “Shelter” (which is a title as generic and forgettable as this movie) takes place in the United Kingdom, primarily in Scotland and England. “Shelter” was actually filmed in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The first 30 minutes of this 107-minute film could’ve been cut in half, and it wouldn’t have changed the story’s weak plot.

“Shelter” begins by showing a recluse named Michael Mason (played by Statham), who just goes by the name Mason, living on an unnamed island in Scotland. Mason has a lighthouse right outside the house where he lives. He has no technology, by choice. He also has a small fishing boat and fishing equipment in his garage, which are indications that he is a self-sufficient fisherman. Mason’s only companion is a male German Shepherd, whom he has not bothered to name.

An unnamed middle-aged fisherman (played by Michael Shaeffer) and his niece Jessica “Jessie” Kelly (played by Bodhi Rae Breathnach), who’s about 15 or 16 years old, are regular visitors who bring supplies that Mason has purchased. However, Mason won’t allow Jessie and her uncle to come up the tall outdoor stairs that lead to the front door of his home, and he doesn’t want to talk to them. He just wants them to drop off supplies at the bottom of the stairs.

Jessie is curious and a little annoyed about Mason being so standoffish. She doesn’t know his name at this point. In fact, Jessie and her uncle don’t know anything about this cranky loner. And so, one day, she breaks Mason’s “no contact” rule and goes up the stairs to his house and knocks on the door to deliver the supplies.

When Mason answers the door, Jessie asks why he won’t talk to her and her uncle. She also asks why they can’t come up the stairs to leave the supplies. Not surprisingly, Mason snaps at her and gruffly says, “Don’t come up here again.” Jessie leaves a small wrapped gift box on the steps as a friendly token.

A storm is brewing that day, and Jessie’s uncle is on his fishing trawler in the ocean. The storm quickly gets worse, with giant tidal waves forming. Jessie takes a rowboat to try to reach him. The uncle idiotically shouts at Jessie to come closer to his boat, when he really should’ve told her to go back to shore where it’s safe.

And soon, the uncle’s boat capsizes. Jessie’s rowboat, which is even less sturdy, capsizes too. Mason sees all of this happen from his house, so he takes out his boat and comes to the rescue. He’s able to save Jessie, but not the uncle, who dies while trapped underwater inside his boat.

Mason takes an unconscious Jessie back to his house. She wakes up, and Mason matter-of-factly tells her the sad news that her uncle has died. She’s devastated, of course, because her uncle was her guardian and only known family member.

Jessie’s left leg got injured in this boating accident, so Mason decides she can stay at his place while she recovers. During this recovery process, Jessie decides to name Mason’s dog Jack, and she tries to get Mason to open up and tell more about himself, but he refuses.

However, Mason sure knows a lot about Jessie, as he informs her. For example, Mason tells Jessie that knows that Jessie’s mother died a few years ago, and Jessie never knew her father. (It’s later revealed that Jessie’s mother died of cancer.) Mason refuses to take Jessie anywhere for medical help. He also refuses to contact anyone to see if Jessie can find a new home. Somehow, Mason knows that no one is going to be looking for Jessie.

In other words, Mason doesn’t really have a plan on what to do with Jessie. It would be illegal for Mason to keep Jessie in his home for an extended period of time without the authority to do so. It’s called child abduction. But this plot hole is temporarily pushed aside because one day, about five or six men dressed in black tactical gear invade Mason’s home.

One of the home invaders shoots Mason’s dog. Another man kidnaps Jessie. The rest of the movie is a series of sterotypical chase scenes, physical fights and shootouts. And you already know who will come out on top.

Who exactly is Mason? This isn’t spoiler information: He’s really a former MI6 agent who faked his own death 10 years ago because he refused government orders to murder an innocent man. Mason was able to stay under the radar until this home invasion. It’s explained later in the movie that corrupt U.K. government officials on the highest levels, including Mason’s former MI6 boss, want to find Mason and assassinate him.

The last half of “Shelter” shifts mainly to London, where U.K. Prime Minister Fordham (played by Harriet Walter) conspires with the equally corrupt MI6 chief Steven Manafort (played by Bill Nighy) to secretly and illegally increase the use of a controversial advanced surveillance network called Total Human Engagement Analytics (THEA), which violates all sorts of U.K. privacy laws. In addition to using camera surveillance in public areas, THEA is intended to bring more invasive surveillance in private areas.

Steven was actually in the midst of a public inquiry about THEA, which he tried to explain as being beneficial for preventing terrorist attacks. The televised inquiry—led by a politician named Haneron (played by Anna Crilly), who is a strong supporter of residents’ privacy— turns into a public-relations disaster for Steven. Prime Minister Fordham then privately meets with Steven and tells him that she wants him to resign from MI6, so they can secretly continue their THEA plans together.

The person appointed to replace Steven as the leader of MI6 is Roberta (played by Naomi Ackie), who was Steven’s second-in-command. Roberta doesn’t do much in this movie except stand around in dark control-room offices with giant video screens, as she looks at these screens and computers, or she talks on the phone to subordinates who tell her information that the subordinates found out themselves. It’s really a waste of Ackie’s acting talent.

What does this THEA conspiracy have to do with Mason? Someone was using Mason’s secret location in Scotland as a technology proxy for a terrorist named Timur Tchermoev, whom the U.K. government had been tracking. Using THEA technology, the U.K. government tracked this activity to Mason’s hiding place in Scotland, which led to the home invasion. Body cam footage from the invading tactical team revealed that Mason, not terrorist Timur, was really living at this house.

And now, Mason’s secret is out that he faked his own death. Steven finds out that Mason is still alive. Steven wants Mason to be murdered because Mason knows too many damaging secrets about MI6. Steven is also very angry at Mason for abandoning MI6, which Steven considers an unforgivable act of betrayal. Steven orders an assassin named James Workman (played by Bryan Vigier) to lead the charge in hunting down Mason.

It’s a plot that’s too convoluted and nonsensical, considering “Shelter” is just another subpar action film where the “hero” is able to take on several opponents at once and kill and/or disable them all, even though he’s outnumbered by those who have more weapons. And somehow, the “hero” has the luck of getting so-called elite operatives who bungle their hunt for him at every turn. “Shelter” has absolutely no suspense and no surprises.

And for someone who’s trying to “stay under the radar” from the people trying to kill him, Mason has a funny way of doing it: He’s got a terrified teenager with him almost all of the time. Not only does Jessie make Mason more noticeable than if he had dodging killers on his own, all of this fugitive chaos makes it harder for him when he has to look out for someone else besides himself.

At one point, Mason barrels his way into a very crowded nightclub with Jessie (she’s the only underage teenager in the nightclub), just so he can talk to a former enemy—a gangster named Kamal (played by Tom Wu)—because Mason wants to ask Kamal to take Jessie somewhere safe out of the country. Mason doesn’t bother to ask Jessie if she wants to leave the U.K. to live somewhere else.

Again: Has Mason not heard of orphanages or child welfare services? It makes no sense that he thinks it’s necessary for Jessie to be involved in his problems that could get both of them killed. This movie reduces Jessie to being a “damsel in distress” gimmick to elevate the macho posturing of the “hero.”

If you’re thinking that “Shelter” has a secret plot twist that Mason is really Jessie’s biological father, think again. That is not a plot twist in this unimaginative movie. Even though it would be a cliché plot twist, it would make more sense than what’s in “Shelter,” which makes Mason look like someone with an unhinged hero complex to force an innocent teenager into dodging asassins with him.

You won’t see anything new from Statham’s acting in “Shelter,” a dreadful dud of a movie that gets worse as it goes along. The best performance in the movie’s cast is from Breathnach, who does the necessary acting to look convincing enough in her role. Nighy seems as if he’s enjoying the role of playing a scheming and evil bureaucrat, but the character is just another hollow villain in just another Statham movie. Daniel Mays has a small supporting role as a technology whiz named Booth, the person who invented THEA.

The action scenes in “Shelter” are nothing special. The movie is too contradictory in repeating that THEA is such powerful surveillance technology, but then scene after scene shows this THEA technology has trouble finding Mason, even though he’s frequently moving out in the open on streets with his teenage captive. There’s no sugarcoating it: Jessie is unnecessarily and unlawfully being held captive by Mason for most of this movie, just so Mason can look like a “hero.” Don’t try to find any logic in a mindless movie whose entire plot has no logic.

Black Bear Pictures released “Shelter” in U.S. cinemas on January 30, 2026.

Review: ‘A Working Man’ (2025), starring Jason Statham

March 28, 2025

by Carla Hay

Arianna Rivas, Michael Peña and Jason Statham in “A Working Man” (Photo by Dan Smith/Amazon Content Services)

“A Working Man” (2025)

Directed by David Ayer

Culture Representation: Taking place in Chicago, the action film “A Working Man” (based on the novel “Levon’s Trade”) features a predominantly white group of people (with some Latin people and African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A construction superintendent, who used to be in the British military, is recruited to find and kill the people who kidnapped his boss’ young adult daughter.

Culture Audience: “A Working Man” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Jason Statham and viewers who just want to watch gruesome deaths in a predictable revenge flick.

Isla Gie and Jason Statham in “A Working Man” (Photo by Dan Smith/Amazon Content Services)

“A Working Man” starts off as a fairly thrilling vigilante action movie, but it becomes a soulless checklist of unrealistic murders. Unlike the campiness of “The Beekeeper,” “A Working Man” takes itself too seriously. Any attempted comedy falls very flat.

Directed by David Ayer (who co-wrote “A Working Man” with Sylvester Stallone), “A Working Man” is based on Chuck Dixon’s 2014 novel “Levon’s Trade.” Ayer and “A Working Man” star Jason Statham previously worked together on the 2024 vigilante action film “The Beekeeper,” where Statham’s Adam Clay beekeeper character got revenge on a group of financial fraudsters who drove his boss to commit suicide. “A Working Man” is a completely derivative movie, with a plot that’s been done hundreds of times already in other vigilante movies.

There’s no imagination to the action scenes, which are just a predictable parade of one man taking on several armed men and once—and usually avoiding getting the types of injuries that would leave people disabled or dead in real life. When a movie is filled with these implausible and cliché scenarios, it’s up to the filmmakers to make the characters interesting and memorable so that the movie will be better than average. Unfortunately, “A Working Man” falls short of those standards because all the characters in the movie are walking stereotypes. And the dialogue gets worse as the movie goes along.

The title character in “A Working Man” is Levon Cade (played by Statham), a British immigrant who lives and works in Chicago. He’s a construction superintendent for a company called Garcia & Family Construction. Levon also used to work in special ops in the British military. Of course, those skills will come in handy when he goes on a mercenary rampage.

Garcia & Family Construction is led by patriarch Joe Garcia (played by Michael Peña), who is the president/CEO. Joe’s wife Carla Garcia (played by Noemi Gonzalez) is an unnamed high-ranking position where she oversees human resources and the finance department. The daughter of Joe and Carla is Jenny Garcia (played by Arianna Rivas), who does part-time administrative work for the company.

Jenny, who is friendly and outgoing, has recently completed her first year in college. Her father expects her to work in the family business full-time after she graduates from college. It’s mentioned that Jenny is such a loyal daughter, she gave up a music scholarship so that she could major in business for her college studies.

One day, six goons show up outdoors in the company yard and start roughing up one of the men whom Levon supervises. It’s unknown why this employee is getting attacked. Levon is able to fight off all of the thugs on his own and tells them to never come back.

Jenny has witnessed everything and asks Levon, “Is that some military shit?” Levon stoically replies, “You didn’t see anything.” Jenny agrees not to tell her parents.

Jenny later brings Levon a chicken meal because she says if she didn’t bring him meals, he’d just be eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Levon has a secret that he’s too embarrassed to tell most people: He’s homeless and living his car. Levon is grateful for Jenny’s compassion and understanding, which is why he ends up going on a mission to save Jenny.

Jenny and the Garcia family look out for Levon because he’s a lonely and currently homeless widower who doesn’t have custody of his daughter Meredith “Merry” Cane (played by Isla Gie), who’s about 11 or 12 years old. Meredith’s American mother, who was married to Levon, committed suicide when Levon was serving in the military overseas. Levon’s wealthy father-in-law Dr. Jordan Roth (played by Richard Heap) has taken custody of Merry because he’s been able to successfully convince the court system than Levon has untreated post-traumatic stress disorder and has violent tendencies.

Jordan also irrationally blames Levon for the suicide of Jordan’s daughter. Levon has unsupervised visitation rights for Merry, but he’s still in custody battle over Merry because Jordan wants Levon’s visitation to be reduced and supervised. Levon is nearly broke and has spent his last $10,000 on legal fees to continue this custody battle. His attorneys advise Levon that he’s likely to lose the custody battle because Levon has been living out of his car.

During all of this personal turmoil for Levon, something terrible happens to the Garcia family: Jenny gets kidnapped from a nightclub while she’s out partying with some female friends. This isn’t a random kidnapping. Jenny had been secretly stalked. And her kidnappers were given a signal by the club’s sleazy bartender Johnny (played by David Witts) on the right time to abduct Jenny.

A distraught Joe and Carla beg Levon to privately find Jenny. Joe tells Levon that he figured out a long time ago that Levon has military experience because Joe was in the military too. Joe offers $50,000 in cash to Levon, with more cash to come, if Levon can find Jenny. Joe wants this mission to be done privately because Joe doesn’t just want Jenny rescued. Joe wants Levon to kill the people responsible for kidnapping Jenny.

This kidnapping is not for ransom. Jenny was kidnapped by a sex trafficking ring, led by Russian gangsters. The two people who actually did the kidnapping are cartoonish flunkies named Viper (played by Emmett J. Scanlan) and Artemis (played by Eve Mauro), who are this movie’s version of villains Boris and Natasha from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons—except Boris and Natasha are smarter and more interesting.

The rest of “A Working Man” shows Levon going after an assortment of goons in gruesomely violent ways, while Levon gets the bare minimum of injuries. There’s no suspense. It all plays out like a pre-programmed video game.

David Harbour has a supporting role as Gunny Lefferty, a blind buddy of Levon’s, who used to be in the military with him. Gunny lives in a remote wooded area with his wife Joyce Lefferty (played by Joanna DeLane), as they give off “doomsday survivalist” vibes. The purpose of Gunny and Joyce in the movie becomes very obvious when Levon starts to fear for Merry’s safety.

One of the more ridiculous scenes in the movie is when Levon does a home invasion, and he corners Wolo Kolisnyk (played by Jason Flemyng), the patriarch of the crime family at the center of this kidnapping. Levon has Wolo tied to a chair, which Levon tips over the edge of an indoor swimming pool during his intense interrogation of Wolo. The scene looks stupid from the start because a wealthy crime boss like Wolo appears to be alone in this part of the mansion and doesn’t have any security staffers protecting him.

During the interrogation, Wolo says he won’t tell Levon anything. But then, Wolo slips up and utters the name of his son Dimi Kolisnyk (played by Maximilian Osinski), who was put in charge of planning this kidnapping. Dimi’s name should be Dimwit because he makes all the expected mistakes that idiotic criminals make in unimaginative movies like this one.

Everything happens too conveniently for Levon to find certain people. He has to do some detective work, but he gets clues too easily. And he’s in the right place at the right time when he attacks.

Statham has made a career out of playing tough, brawling characters and does nothing new in “A Working Man.” The rest of the cast members’ performances are serviceable. Take away the shootings, the bloody fights and the explosions, and “A Working Man” is just another mind-numbing and tedious movie about a dysfunctional man who takes his homicidal anger out on people who morally worse than he is.

Amazon MGM Studios released “A Working Man” in U.S. cinemas on March 28, 2025.

Review: ‘The Beekeeper’ (2024), starring Jason Statham

January 23, 2024

by Carla Hay

Jason Statham and Jeremy Irons in “The Beekeeper” (Photo by Daniel Smith/Amazon MGM Studios)

“The Beekeeper” (2024)

Directed by David Ayer

Culture Representation: Taking place in Boston, the action film “The Beekeeper” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans, Latinos and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A beekeeper with assassin skills goes after the online financial scammers who caused his hive landlord to commit suicide after she lost all of her money to their theft.

Culture Audience: “The Beekeeper” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Jason Statham and action films that don’t take themselves seriously.

Josh Hutcherson in “The Beekeeper” (Photo by Daniel Smith/Amazon MGM Studios)

“The Beekeeper” is a slapstick-styled action film that laughs at itself as much as it wants the audience to laugh at the movie. The vigilante beekeeper in the story delivers more cheesiness than honey, but it works well-enough for escapist entertainment. The comedic element saves this movie from being a bottom-of-the-barrel schlockfest.

Directed by David Ayer and written by Kurt Wimmer, “The Beekeeper” begins by showing the movie’s namesake Adam Clay (played by Statham) in the Boston area. He is tending to his bees on a semi-remote ranch owned by a widow named Eloise Parker (played by Phylicia Rashad), who is renting space on her property for Adam to have his bee business. Adam and Eloise have a mutually respectful relationship. Adam is the strong and silent type, but he has a very good rapport with Eloise, who looks out for him as if Adam were her own child.

One day, Eloise is on her laptop computer when she gets an urgent message on her screen saying that her computer has had a security breach and she should call the emergency phone number on the screen. She reaches a call center, where she talks to a slick manager who offers to help Eloise with her problem. What Eloise doesn’t know is that this manager, whose name is Mickey Garnett (played by David Witts), is really the sleazy supervisor of a financial fraud group that makes millions of dollars per month.

At this moment, Mickey is using his phone call with Eloise as a live example in training the call center’s minions, who all know they’re in the business of stealing from victims, especially gullible senior citizens. Eloise admits she’s not very good at using computers, so she lets Mickey walk her through a step-by-step process to let him get access to her computer. During this process, Mickey is smirking and bragging to his trainees about how Eloise is a perfect target.

It isn’t long before Mickey has hacked into all the bank accounts that Eloise has access to, including a community account that has $2 million. The community account is for a children’s charity where Eloise is the director who is a signatory authority. Mickey quickly steals all of the money in Eloise’s personal bank accounts and the community account, through a electronic transfers that she would not be able to trace. Eloise is completely devastated when she finds out what happened.

The next scene shows an FBI agent named Verona Parker (played by Emmy Raver-Lampman) arriving at Eloise’s darkened house and seeing Adam there with a knife. Verona, who doesn’t know who Adam is, immediately gets suspicious and demands to know what he’s doing there. And that’s when Adam and Verona look nearby and see Eloise dead from a gunshot wound and the gun lying next to her on the floor.

Adam is immediately placed under arrest, even though he insists that he had nothing to do with Eloise’s death. He explains that Eloise was his landlord for his beekeeper business and he would have no reason to harm her. It turns out that Verona is Eloise’s daughter, who was visiting to check up on Eloise after not hearing from her for a while.

A coroner’s report officially rules Eloise’s death as a suicide, so Adam is released from jail. Around the same time, Verona and Adam find out that the motive for Eloise’s suicide was that she felt overwhelming guilt and shame for losing not only all of her money but also the charity’s money. And you know what that means: Verona and Adam both want to find the scam leaders and get justice. However, Verona and Adam both have very different definitions of “justice.”

What’s a vigilante like Adam to do in a crass and violent action movie? He find outs the address of the call center and goes there to burn it down, of course. Adam shows up at the glassy office building with two cans of gas and some lighter fluid. Two security guards are there, but that doesn’t stop Adam. Some of this scene is already revealed in “The Beekeeper” trailer.

It’s enough to say that a lot of mayhem and madness ensue, including Adam causing terror in the call center and making the workers chant, “I will never prey on the weak and vulnerable again.” Adam becomes a one-man revenge army who can implausibly taken on several different opponents at the same time. It’s over-the-top ridiculous and hilarious at the same time.

Mickey isn’t the highest-ranking person in the financial fraud group. His boss is the group leader, a spoiled, rich brat named Derek Danforth (played by Josh Hutcherson), who is the heir to a Boston-based corporation called Danforth Enterprises. Derek’s widowed mother Jessica Danforth (played by Jemma Redgrave) is the president of Danforth Enterprises. (“The Beekeeper” was actually filmed in Boston and London.)

Danforth Enterprises has a fixer named Wallace Westwyld (played by Jeremy Irons), a former CIA director who is tasked with looking after Derek and getting him out of trouble. It’s hinted that Wallace and Jessica used to be romantically involved with each other, because Wallace acts almost like a stepfather to Derek. Wallace, who is very intuitive and jaded, is aware that Derek is involved in illegal activities, but Wallace doesn’t really want to hear the details unless he needs to know.

Derek is a habitual troublemaker, so he’s been keeping Wallace busy. And soon, Adam will be keeping Wallace busy too. Meanwhile, Verona is hot on the trail to bring down Derek’s fraud empire, but she’s in a race against time with Adam, who wants to get to Derek and his cronies first. You know how all of this is gong to end.

Why does this beekeeper have such amazing combat skills? That question is answered in the movie. It should come as no surprise that Adam as a big secret. Someone who knows that secret is current CIA director Janet Harward (played by Minnie Driver), who gives this information to certain people.

“The Beekeeper” is the type of movie where Wallace says of the special type of beekeeper that Adam is: “Beekeepers keep working until they die.” Wallace then says that Adam’s goal is to “keep killing until he gets to the top of the hive.” Some of the cast members look like they have a hard time keeping a straight face when saying all of this campy dialogue.

Nothing about “The Beekeeper” is award-worthy, of course, but the movie is very aware of how mindless it is and has fun with it. Unless a viewer is in a very bad mood, that fun is infectious to watch, as long as there are no expectations that “The Beekeeper” will be more than what it is: an uncomplicated, action-packed vigilante rampage.

Amazon MGM Studios released “The Beekeeper” in U.S. cinemas on January 12, 2024.

Review: ‘Meg 2: The Trench,’ starring Jason Statham, Wu Jing, Sophia Cai, Page Kennedy, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Skyler Samuels and Cliff Curtis

August 3, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Meg 2: The Trench”

Directed by Ben Wheatley

Culture Representation: Taking place in China and in or near the Pacific Ocean, the sci-fi action film “Meg 2: The Trench” (a sequel to 2018’s “The Meg”) features a predominantly white and Asian cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Latinos) representing the middle-class, working-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Deep sea diver Jonas Taylor and his colleagues once again battle deadly creatures in or near the Pacific Ocean.

Culture Audience: “Meg 2: The Trench” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and “The Meg,” but “Meg 2: The Trench” replaces the campy fun of “The Meg” with an onslaught of terrible filmmaking.

Jason Statham and Sophia Cai in “Meg 2: The Trench” (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

Even by low standards of stupid movies about animal attacks, “Meg 2: The Trench” is among the lowest of the low when it comes to idiocy. The movie also goes into a weird tangent of showing dinosaurs as much as sharks. “Meg 2: The Trench” (a sequel to 2018’s “The Meg”) is one of those moronic movies where people are supposed to be 25,000 feet underwater in the ocean, but they are able to survive without oxygen tanks and helmets. At one point, this vital survival equipment is discarded by the movie’s chief “hero” because this equipment just gets in his way when he was to travel across the ocean floor.

Apparently, getting “the bends” (getting injured from rising to the surface too quickly after being deep underwater) doesn’t exist in this world either. In “Meg 2: The Trench,” people who were 25,000 feat underwater are able to rise to the surface with no physical side effects. And apparently, face makeup stays intact for the women in the movie, despite all the life-threatening chases they go through underwater and above water. “Meg 2: The Trench” is based on Steve Alten’s 1999 novel “The Trench,” which is by far much better than the obnoxiously inept movie version of the book.

Directed atrociously by Ben Wheatley, “Meg 2: The Trench” is a giant mess of incoherence, with film editing so sloppy, it’s mind-numbing. Characters are “trapped” in one scene, but then in the next scene, the characters are suddenly “free,” with the movie quickly skipping over the details of how they escaped. One minute these people are stuck 25,000 feet underwater. The next minute, the survivors are in a canoe, with no signs of having medical problems from their ordeal. The movie doesn’t even bother to show them in wet clothes after rising from deep within the ocean.

The movie’s title character refers to the Megalodon shark (more than 60 feet wide), which is extinct in real life. But in the “Meg” movies, more than one Megaldon shark exists. “The Meg” was based on Alten’s 1997 novel “The Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror.” “Meg 2: The Trench” has very little resemblance to the novel on which it is based, in terms of the human characters. “Meg 2: The Trench” screenwriters Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgaris butchered “The Trench” novel to come up with this awful screenplay.

In addition to battling Megaldon sharks, the human characters in “Meg 2: The Trench” have to contend with two fictional creatures that attack humans: (1) a giant octopus with the not-so-original name Mega-Octopus and (2) snappers (inspired by a dinosaur called Koreanosaurus) that look a lot like mutant iguanas that are about the size of sea lions. And then there are the movie’s human villains, led by Hilary Driscoll (played by Sienna Guillory), the wealthy CEO of a company that mines the ocean for resources.

“Meg 2: The Trench” takes place in and near China, but the movie was actually filmed in England and Thailand. Warner Bros. Pictures is co-distributing this movie with China-based CMC Pictures. “Meg 2: The Trench” begins by reminding viewers that dinosaurs lived 65 million years ago, but some of these dinosaurs were no match for a Megaldon shark. This opening scene shows a Meg attacking and devouring a smaller-sized dinosaur. In the “Meg” world, several animals that are supposed to be extinct are still alive in the 21st century.

The main protagonist in “The Meg” and “Meg 2: The Trench” is Jonas Taylor (played by Jason Statham), a British diver whose specialty is deep-sea search and rescue. Jonas is also an environmental activist who’s hired to bust up operations that violate environmental laws in large bodies of water. Near the beginning of the movie, Jonas is shown narrowly escaping from a cargo ship, where he was discovered as an intruder. Some goons chase him around the deck. And when Jonas is cornered, he jumps over the ship’s railing and plunges into the water unharmed.

Meanwhile, the other “alpha male” in “Meg 2: The Trench” is Jiuming Zhang (played by Wu Jing), the director of the Zhang Oceanic Institute in Hainan, China. His domineering father is well-known oceanographer Minway Zhang (played by Winston Chao), who’s not in “Meg 2: The Trench,” but he was in “The Meg.” Even though Jiuming is a respected oceanographer in his own right, Jiuming feels like he’s living in his father’s shadow. Jonas and two of his closest colleagues—dependable James “Mac” Mackreides (played by Cliff Curtis) and sassy Rigas (played by Melissanthi Mahut)—attend a reception where Hilary is honoring Jiuming, whom she wants to work with to find parts of the ocean that will be lucrative for her company.

As shown in “The Meg,” Minway and his oceanographer daughter Suyin Zhang (played by Li Bingbing) supervised an exploratory mission in the Mariana Trench (located in the western Pacific Ocean, near Asia), with Jonas on board for the mission, which turned out to be a deadly disaster involving attacking Megalon sharks. The vessel used in this fatal mission was the Mana One, which also doubled as an underwater research facility where single mother Suyin lived with her 8-year-old inquisitive daughter Meiying (played by Sophia Cai)—because nothing says “family bonding” like having an underage kid along for the ride in a dangerous underwater mission.

In “Meg 2: The Trench,” Suyin is now deceased. Meiying (also played by Cai), who is now 14 years old, is under the guardianship of Jonas, who treats Meiying like a daughter. Meiying wants to become an oceanographer, just like her mother, uncle and grandfather. “You need to take me seriously as a scientist,” Meiying tells Jonas when he says she can’t go with him on his next exploratory mission. And you know what that means: Meiying sneaks on the submarine where Jonas and his crew are doing their mission, once again in the Mariana Trench.

At the Mana One Research Center, the control room that is monitoring this mission is being operated by managing researcher Mac, level-headed engineer Jess (played by Skyler Samuels) and wisecracking engineer DJ (played by Page Kennedy), who is written like a buffoon and is saddled with some of the worst “jokes” in the movie. Mac and DJ were also in “The Meg,” so they already have an established bond. Most of the Mana One supporting characters who are new to “Meg 2: The Trench” are bland and have forgettable personalities.

Jonas is leading two submarines for his mission, which is going 25,000 feet underwater in the Mariana Trench. The submarine with Jonas on board also has Jiuming, surprise passenger Meying and crew members Rigas, Curtis (played by Whoopie Van Raam) and Sal (played by Kiran Sonia Sawar) and Lance (played by Felix Mayr). Viewers don’t really get to know the people in the other submarine, so you know what that means in a movie where groups of people can get killed at the same time.

Something goes terribly wrong when giant rocks surge through the ocean in a collision that crashes both submarines. Guess which ancient and monstrous shark caused this disruption? The submarine with Jonas and his crew is damaged but has no fatalities. There are no survivors on the other submarine, which has been completely demolished.

Making matters worse, although Jonas can communicate by radio to the Mana One Research Center’s control room, the control room’s radar to detect the sunken submarine is no longer working. Mac soon finds out that the radar’s system has been hacked into and destroyed. The people trapped underwater are running out of oxygen. Jonas makes the risky decision to walk the three kilometers (approximately 1.9 miles) across the trench to see if he can find anything to help them get back up to the surface.

A lot of people might think that “Meg 2: The Trench” takes place mostly underwater. They’ll be surprised to find out that at least half of the movie takes place on land, where there are more monstrous and human-killing creatures: the snappers. In typical villain fashion, Hilary has a chief henchman doing a lot of her dirty work. His name is Montes (played by Sergio Peris-Mencheta), who has a grudge against Jonas that is revealed in the movie.

Much of the last third of “Meg 2: The Trench” takes place in the South Seas, on Fun Island, which has a popular resort called Club Paradise. Fun Island is populated by numerous snappers, but apparently the people at Club Paradise had no idea until one particular day when the snappers attack. And let’s not forget that Mega-Octopus is lurking around too.

Club Paradise social director Coco (played by Sui Fong Ivy Tsui), who was a bride in “The Meg,” has her constant companion with her: a Yorkshire Terrier named Pippin. This dog is used as comic relief in the movie and in the marketing campaign for “Meg 2: The Trench.” But in actuality, the dog’s screen time in “Meg 2: The Trench” is less than 10 minutes. It’s “bait and switch” manipulation.

There are so many cringeworthy and eye-rolling things about “Meg 2: The Trench,” it’s as if the filmmakers decided to take everything that people dislike about mindless action flicks and put all of it into this movie. People don’t mind cheesy dialogue if it’s done with the right tone, but “Meg 2: The Trench” can’t even have fun with its foolishness. When one of the villains gets killed by shark, Jonas utters, “See you later, chum.” (If you don’t know the sea creature definition for chum, look it up.) It’s supposed to be the biggest joke in the movie, but this “joke” just falls flat.

Needless to say, between the unfocused direction, the horrible film editing, the mediocre-to-terrible acting, and the junkpile screenplay, “Meg 2: The Trench” is not the type of bad movie that’s somewhat entertaining to watch. It’s just a series of awkwardly cobbled-together scenes where action sequences look jumbled and the visual effects often look amateurish. “Meg 2: The Trench” soon becomes a blur of nonsense, because this movie just doesn’t care about having a good story. If you want action movies to at least have a good story, then you shouldn’t care to see “Meg 2: The Trench.”

Warner Bros. Pictures will release “Meg 2: The Trench” on August 4, 2023.

Review: ‘Fast X,’ starring Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, Jason Momoa, John Cena and Brie Larson

May 17, 2023

by Carla Hay

Pictured clockwise, from left: Michelle Rodriguez, Sung Kang, Nathalie Emmanuel, Vin Diesel, Leo Abelo Perry, Rita Moreno, Jordana Brewster Chris “Ludacris” Bridges (back to camera) and Tyrese Gibson (back to camera) in “Fast X” (Photo by Peter Mountain/Universal Pictures)

“Fast X”

Directed by Louis Leterrier

Culture Representation: Taking place in the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal, and Antarctica, the action flick “Fast X” features a racially diverse cast of characters (black, white, Latino and Asian) representing the middle-class and wealthy in law enforcement and the criminal underground.

Culture Clash: A daredevil team tries to save the world from a group of criminals led by a sadistic killer who’s avenging the death of his father.

Culture Audience: Besides appealing to fans of the “Fast and the Furious” movie franchise, “Fast X” (the 10th movie in the series) will appeal primarily to people who want to a predictable action flick with high-budget stunts and low-quality screenwriting.

Jason Momoa in “Fast X” (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures)

“Fast X” is the cinematic equivalent of a multi-car crash pileup. It’s a huge downgrade for the franchise, which is a bloated mishmash of Oscar-winning stars and less-talented cast members saying a lot of awful dialogue while dodging guns and explosions. It’s bad enough that this franchise expects people to believe that the “heroes” don’t get wounded or killed in the way they should in these far-fetched action scenes. Now, this franchise expects viewers to believe that some of these characters can come back from the dead.

Directed by Louis Leterrier, “Fast X” (the 10th film in the “Fast and the Furious” franchise) has given up on having coherent plots and interesting characters. Everyone is just a caricature at this point. Justin Lin (who was the original director of “Fast X” but he quit due to behind-the-scenes turmoil) and Dan Mazeau wrote the atrocious screenplay for “Fast X,” which ends with a scene that will either have viewers cheering or rolling their eyes at the ludicrous “resurrection” that viewers are expected to believe.

“Fast X” has a less complicated plot than 2021’s “F9: The Fast Saga” (the ninth movie in the “Fast” series), but that just means the plot’s inanity is even more obvious. In a nutshell: “Fast X” is about the daredevil “heroes” of the franchise being framed as terrorists by a wisecracking villain named Dante (played by Jason Momoa), who likes to spead out his arms a lot, as if he’s a criminal messiah. Dante is the son of Brazilian drug lord Hernan Reyes (played by Joaquim de Almeida), who was killed during his defeat by the “Fast” heroes in 2011’s “Fast Five.” Dante acts like an unhinged and untalented stand-up comedian when he commits his mayhem, such as when he threatens to blow up the Vatican in Rome, and he smirks that he’s “going to hell,” just for making this threat.

The “Fast” hero characters are:

Dominic “Dom” Toretto (played by Vin Diesel) is the leader of the daredevil crew that started out as outlaw drag racers and now have vague duties a security/spy team hired to help out government officials and elite business people who are targets of villains who want to take over the world. Vinnie Bennett portrays a young Dom in the movie’s several flashbacks to when Dom was in his late teens.
Letty Ortiz (played by Michelle Rodriguez) is Dom’s on-again, off-again girlfriend. In “F9,” Dom and Letty are happily living together with Dom’s son Brian (played by Leo Abelo Perry), who’s about 6 or 7 years old in this movie. Brian’s mother Elena Neves (played by Elsa Pataky) was a Diplomatic Security Service agent who died in 2017’s “The Fate of the Furious.”
Mia Toretto (played by Jordana Brewster) is Dom’s loyal younger sister who goes along with whatever Dom wants. Mia is the love partner of Dom’s best friend Brian O’Conner (played by Paul Walker), who is the father of their son Jack. Walker died in real life in 2013, but Brian is supposed to be happily retired.
Roman Pearce (played by Tyrese Gibson) is a nervous and talkative member of Dom’s team. The running joke with Roman is that he’s always anxious about getting into dangerous situations. Expect Roman to scream at least twice in every “Fast” movie.
Tej Parker (played by Chris “Ludacris” Bridges) is Roman’s level-headed best friend who has skills as a mechanic and a computer technician.
Ramsey (played by Nathalie Emmanuel) is a British computer hacker who has essentially taken over from Tej as being the “computer whiz” on Dom’s team.
Han Lue (played by Sung Kang) supposedly died in 2013’s “Fast & Furious 6,” but he came back from the dead in “F9: The Fast Saga” because he “faked” his own death.

Also in the movie are Deckard Shaw (played by Jason Statham), who is a longtime nemesis of Dom’s team. Jakob Toretto (played by John Cena), Dom’s formerly estranged younger brother who was introduced in “F9: The Fast Saga,” also shows up in a way that is entirely predictable and unimaginative. Government agent Little Nobody (played by Scott Eastwood) makes a return. A generic bureaucrat named Aimes (played by Alan Richtson) has replaced Mr. Nobody as the leader of the secret Agency that works with Dom and his team. And there’s also a Brazilian street racer named Isabela (played by Daniela Melchior), who makes a brief appearance in a drag race scene that objectifies women’s bodies.

The “Fast” franchise keeps adding Oscar winners to its cast, in what seems to be a desperate attempt to bring artistic credibility to this movie series. It’s just like having master chefs serve up low-quality junk food. The food is still junk, no matter who’s serving it. The Oscar winners who are new to “Fast X” are Rita Moreno, as Dom’s unnamed grandmother (she’s called “abuelita,” a Spanish-language term of endearment for “grandmother”), and Brie Larson as Tess, a “rogue representative” who’s also the daughter of Mr. Nobody. They join Oscar winners Helen Mirren as Queenie Shaw (the mother of Deckard Shaw) and Charlize Theron as frenemy Cipher, who both make return cameos in “Fast X.”

A mid-credits scene in “Fast X” shows the return of a major “Fast” franchise character, who wasn’t killed in the series. It’s yet another attempt for the “Fast” franchise to look more interesting by adding and bringing back stars to the “Fast” movie series. At this point in the “Fast” franchise, it doesn’t matter who lives or dies, because the creative innovation in this movie series is dead.

Universal Pictures will release “Fast X” in U.S. cinemas on May 19, 2023.

Review: ‘Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre,’ starring Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone and Hugh Grant

March 6, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre”

Directed by Guy Ritchie

Culture Representation: Taking place in various countries in Europe and Asia, the action film “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A group of undercover operatives, who work for the British government, recruit a movie star to work with them on a mission, as they try to stop an illegal deal involving weapons of mass destruction, in order to save the world.

Culture Audience: “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of filmmaker Guy Ritchie, star Jason Statham, and formulaic and soulless spy movies.

Lourdes Faberes and Hugh Grant in “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” (Photo by Dan Smith/Lionsgate)

When does a movie about undercover operatives become boring and useless? When you can predict everything that will happen within the first 10 minutes of watching the film. “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” is so formulaic and lacking in creativity, you could literally fall asleep in the middle of the film and not miss much, because there isn’t much of a plot. This smug and cliché-plagued action flick is proof that Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham have gotten lazy in their movie collaborations. The fights look too fake. The whole film is a failure of imagination, motivated by greed and paid trips to exotic places.

Ritchie directed “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” from a screenplay that he co-wrote with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies. Ritchie, Atkinson and Davies previously collaborated on the screenplays for 2020’s “The Gentlemen” and 2021’s “Wrath of Man,” which were both also directed by Ritchie. The quality of each of these collaborations has rapidly decreased with each subsequent film.

Stop if you’ve heard this plot before: A ragtag group of undercover operatives jet back and forth to various countries to try to stop a “fill in the blank” from happening, in order to save the world. In the case of “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre,” the mission is to stop a billionaire arms dealer from selling a stolen cargo of weapons of mass destruction, and to prevent these weapons from being available on the open market. This over-used concept describes every other big-budget spy film with an ensemble cast of stars, whose characters fight, get involved in car chases, dodge explosions, and maybe have a little romance along the way.

“Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” (“ruse de guerre” means “ruse of war” in French) is a checklist of these stereotypes, without coming close to being as charming and funny as the movies thinks it is. Half of the principal cast members look like they’ve checked out emotionally and act no better than robots, while the other half of the principal cast members try to salvage the weak and derivative screenplay by playing their roles with a “tongue in cheek” tone that just looks awkward when they’re in the same scenes as their lackluster co-stars. It’s not the worst spy movie ever, but it shouldn’t be this bad, since the filmmakers and stars of this movie are capable of doing much better.

“Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” (which was filmed in Turkey and Qatar but takes place in several countries in Europe and Asia) opens with a scene of a world-weary British government operative named Nathan (played by Cary Elwes) being somewhat annoyed, as he walks through a government building to have an office meeting with his supervisor: a no-nonsense and bland bureaucrat named Knighton (played by Eddie Marsan), who has summoned Nathan to this meeting on a Sunday morning.

Nathan is irritated because of the time and day of this meeting. Nathan apparently still doesn’t understand that he doesn’t have the type of job where the only work hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., from Monday to Friday. Nathan acting like he should have regular office hours is one of many ways that “Operation Fortune” makes these spy characters look like idiots. Knighton tells Nathan that 20 armed guards were killed two nights earlier, during an armed robbery that happened near Johannesburg, South Africa.

Knighton gives Nathan this order about the stolen cargo: “I want you to retrieve what went missing, and to find out who the seller is, who the buyer is, and what it is. It’s worth about $10 billion. it’s been given the name The Handle.” Translation: The screenplay is so sloppy and underdeveloped, the screenwriters didn’t bother to come up with any interesting details before this mission began. And if Knighton doesn’t know what the missing cargo is, how does he really know it’s worth $10 billion? It’s all just so illogical and stupid.

Knighton says to Nathan: “I need a creative, cunning and unconventional vision to retrieve this kind of mercurial threat. A courier on a bicycle in congested traffic. Not the official team. They’d take forever to wade through traffic, and the clock doth ticketh.”

First of all, “creative, cunning and unconventional” is not how to describe this movie. Second, who says nonsense like “The clock doth ticketh?” Third, the answer to that question: Only people in a badly written movie.

Nathan then begrudgingly assembles a team that includes these three core members for this mission:

Orson Fortune (played by Statham), a stern Brit, is described as having claustrophobia, agoraphobia and a penchant for having the British government pay for his lavish expenses, which he calls “rehab,” whether it’s for legitimate rehab or not.
Sarah Fidel (played by Aubrey Plaza), a wisecracking American, is a quick thinker and a computer technology expert.
JJ Davies (played by Bugzy Malone), a quiet and loyal Brit, has keen shooter skills and can handle himself well in a fist fight.

This is the type of idiotic dialogue in the movie. In the meeting between Nathan and Orson to get Orson to join the team, Nathan says, “[A] threat is imminent.” Orson asks, “How imminent?” Nathan replies, “Imminently imminent.”

Nathan is not looking forward to working with Orson, because Nathan thinks that Orson is too high-maintenance and problematic, but Knighton has ordered that Orson be on Nathan’s team. Meanwhile, Orson and Sarah have some friction with each other because they each think they are smarter than the other one. JJ is truly a token character who doesn’t say or do much except show up at the right times to help out in a fight. Nathan does some traveling with his crew, but for most of the movie, he’s giving orders while he’s in an office or away at a luxury resort.

Sarah used to work for Nathan’s fiercest operative rival Mike Hook (played by Peter Ferdinando), who also works for the British government, but Mike has a habit of poaching Nathan’s best employees. John Welch (played by Nicholas Facey) is a recently poached employee who currently works for Mike. Nathan thinks hiring Sarah for Nathan’s team is some sort of revenge that he can get on Mike.

“Operation Fortune” has several repetitive scenes showing Nathan and/or members of his team having snarling, sneering and sniping encounters with Mike and his team. After the third time this happens, you’ll feel like yelling at the screen: “We get it: Nathan’s people and Mike’s people don’t like each other!” Here are some choice words that Nathan has to say about Mike when Nathan is having a phone conversation with Knighton: “Mike only has two talents: blowing his cover and blowing himself.”

After Nathan and Orson go to Madrid to bring Sarah and JJ into their team, there’s a silly caper sequence that’s supposed to take place at Merchant Logo Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, where a retired professor named Donald Bakker (played by Ian Bartholomew) with a brown crocodile briefcase has been identified as the “bag man” with an important computer data drive. Nathan’s team and Mike’s team are all spying on Donald at the airport at the same time.

Somehow, throughout the entire movie, Sarah seems to have video surveillance and wireless microphones everywhere. She works like a one-person, far-reaching command center to tell people, who are long distances away, everything she’s seeing while they all wear hidden ear pieces. Sarah also spends a lot of time directing people on where to go, as if they’re characters in a voice-activated video game.

Nathan’s team finds out that a billionaire arms dealer named Greg Simmonds (played by Hugh Grant) is involved in the deal to sell the stolen cargo. Greg (who is jaded and arrogant) and a dimwitted action movie star named Danny Francesco (played by Josh Hartnett) have a platonic bromance that heats up during the course of the movie. It’s a one-note joke that quickly gets old. Orson and Sarah come up with a plan to enlist Danny’s help to spy on Greg, by having Sarah pose as Danny’s girlfriend when Greg invites Danny to stay at Greg’s luxurious estate in Cannes, France.

Greg has several generically shallow people in his entourage, including a scowling assistant named Emilia (played by Lourdes Faberes); other employees named Trent (played by Tom Rosenthal) and Arnold (played by Oliver Maltman); and hangers-on/friends named Alexander (played by Tim Seyfi), Dmitry (played by Ayhan Eroğlu), Yiv (played by Savaş Ak), Natalya (played by Oleksandra Zharikova) and Katya (played by Mishel Lazarenko). These characters have no real purpose in the movie except to possibly add to the inevitable body count of murdered people.

“Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” has no shortage of glamorous-looking locations, as these characters zip around to places such as Morocco, Quatar and Turkey. But having pretty-looking scenery just looks like an ineffective distraction to a flimsy plot. The movie’s fight scenes are underwhelming, while the jokes mostly fall flat, despite Plaza and Grant making an effort to bring some personality to this hack job pretending to be a thrilling spy caper.

“Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” rehashes the same outdated spy-movie ensemble stereotypes of having a group of protagonists consisting of several macho men and one token woman. And (sexist cliché alert) she has to use her sexuality to accomplish her work goals, while the men never have to use their sexuality to accomplish their work goals. Filmmakers who resort to these tired clichés, when there are so many other options that are fresh and innovative, just expose how backwards their mindsets are when it comes to how women are presented in their movies. “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” has several scenes that show off how much money was probably spent to film the movie in exotic or pricey locations. But make no mistake: “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” is creatively bankrupt.

Lionsgate released “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” in U.S. cinemas on March 3, 2023. The movie was released in several other countries, beginning in January 2023.

Review: ‘Wrath of Man,’ starring Jason Statham

May 6, 2021

by Carla Hay

“Wrath of Man”

Directed by Guy Ritchie

Culture Representation: Taking place in Los Angeles, the action flick “Wrath of Man” features a nearly all-male, predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans, Latinos and Asians) representing the middle-class, law enforcement and the criminal underground.

Culture Clash: A crime boss goes undercover as an armored truck driver to avenge the murder of his teenage son, who was killed during a heist of an armored truck.

Culture Audience: “Wrath of Man” will appeal primarily to people who want to see a predictable and violent movie with no imagination.

Raúl Castillo, Deobia Oparei, Jeffrey Donovan, Chris Reilly, Laz Alonso and Scott Eastwood in “Wrath of Man” (Photo by Christopher Raphael/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures)

The fourth time isn’t the charm for director Guy Ritchie and actor Jason Statham in the vapid action flick “Wrath of Man,” their fourth movie together. It’s tedious and predictable junk filled with cringeworthy dialogue and stunts with no creativity. People who are familiar with Statham’s work already know that his movies are almost always schlockfests that are essentially about violence and car chases. However, Ritchie’s filmography is much more of a mixed bag. “Wrath of Man” isn’t Ritchie’s absolute worst film, but it’s a movie that could have been so much better.

Ritchie co-wrote the “Wrath of Man” screenplay with Marn Davies and Ivan Atkinson. The movie is based on the 2004 French thriller “Le Convoyeur,” directed by Nicolas Boukhrief and written by Boukhrief and Éric Besnard. Ritchie and Statham previously worked together on 1998’s “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” (Ritchie’s feature-film debut), 2000’s “Snatch” and 2005’s “Revolver.” Whereas those three movies had plenty of sly comedy with brutal action, “Wrath of Man” is so by-the-numbers and soulless, it seems like a computer program, not human beings, could’ve written this movie.

The movie’s simplistic plot could’ve been told in 90 minutes or less. Instead, it’s stretched out into a nearly two-hour slog with repetitive and unnecessary flashbacks. In “Wrath of Man,” which takes place in Los Angeles, Statham plays a mysterious crime boss who’s out to avenge the murder of his son Dougie (played by Eli Brown), who was about 17 or 18 and an innocent bystander when he was shot to death by a robber during a heist of an armored truck.

Dougie’s murder (which is not spoiler information) is shown in a flashback about halfway through the movie. Until then, viewers are left to wonder who Statham’s character really is when he shows up at the headquarters of Fortico Security to apply for a job working as a guard in an armored truck. When he applies for the job, he identifies himself has Patrick Hill, a divorcé with more than 25 years of security experience. Later, viewers find out that it’s an alias; his real last name is Mason.

But he was able to create an entire false identity as Patrick Hill, with documents provided by his trusty assistant Kirsty (played by Lyne Renée), one of the few women with a speaking role in this movie. The false identity includes phony job references and a fake job stint at the now-defunct Orange Delta Security, which was a well-known company. Based on this elaborate scheme, Patrick is easily able to get a job at Fortico.

Fortico is described in the movie as one of the top armored vehicle companies that does cash pickups and deliveries in the area. The company’s clients include retail department stores, marijuana dispensaries, cash vaults, casinos and private banks. On a typical pickup or delivery, there are two or three employees in the truck: a driver, a guard and/or a messenger. The company isn’t huge (it only has 12 trucks), but it’s very profitable. A Fortico truck haul can total around $15 million a day, sometimes more.

Patrick is trained by Hayden Blair (played by Holt McCallany), who goes by the nickname Bullet. Almost everyone Bullet works with directly seems to have a nickname, so he immediately gives Patrick the nickname H, an abbreviation of Hill. Patrick/H goes through the training process (including gun defense skills) and he barely gets passing grades. He’s assigned to work with a cocky driver named David Hancock (played by Josh Hartnett), whose nickname is Boy Sweat Dave. Another colleague is Robert Martin (played by Rocci Williams), whose nickname is Hollow Bob.

When Bullet introduces H to these two co-workers, Bullet says, “He’s H, like the bomb. Or Jesus H.” The bad dialogue doesn’t get any better. H is told that he’s replacing a co-worker named Sticky John (who came up with these cringeworthy nicknames?), who died during a heist that killed multiple employees. The robbers got away, so the Fortico employees on are on edge about this shooting spree, which they call the Gonzo Murders. Boy Sweat Dave says, “We ain’t the predators. We’re the prey.”

The insipid dialogue continues throughout the entire movie. In a scene with some Fortico workers off-duty in a bar, Boy Sweat Dave is playing pool with Dana Curtis (played by Niamh Algar), the token female on Fortico’s armored truck crew. Dana says sarcastically to Boy Sweat Dave: “The point of the game is to get the ball in the hole.” Boy Sweat Dave snaps back, “The point of a woman is to shut the fuck up, Dana.”

Dana replies, “Well, that Ivy League education is really working for you, Boy Sweat.” (How can you say a line like that with a straight face?) Boy Sweat Dave retorts, “Pretty soon, you’ll all be working for me. The power is in this big head here.” Dana snipes back, “Well, it’s definitely not in your little head. Or are you still blaming the beer?”

The character of Boy Sweat Dave is an example of how “Wrath of Man” wastes a potentially interesting character on silly dialogue. What kind of person with an Ivy League education wants to work as an armored truck driver, a job which doesn’t even require a high school education? Viewers never find out because Boy Sweat Dave is one of several characters in the movie who are shallowly introduced, just so there can be more people in the body count later.

And because Dana is H’s only female co-worker, this movie that treats women as tokens can’t let her be just a co-worker. No, she has to serve the purpose of fulfilling H’s sexual needs too, since he and Dana have a predictable fling/one night stand. He finds out something about her when he spends the night at her place that helps him unravel the mystery of who killed his son.

It isn’t long before Patrick/H experiences his first heist as a Fortico employee. He’s partnered with Boy Sweat Dave, who’s driving, while H is the lookout. The heist is unrealistically staged in the movie as one of those battles where one man (in this case, H) can take down several other men in a shootout where a Fortico employee has been taken hostage by the thieves. Post Malone fans (or haters) might get a kick out of the scene though, since he plays one of the nameless robbers who doesn’t last long in this movie. H has saved his co-workers’ lives in this botched heist, so he’s hailed as a hero by the company.

Meanwhile, the FBI has been looking for Patrick because he’s been an elusive crime boss. There are three FBI agents, all very uninteresting, who are on this manhunt: Agent Hubbard (played by Josh Cowdery), Agent Okey (played by Jason Wong) and their supervisor Agent King (played by Andy Garcia). Hubbard and Okey come in contact with Patrick/H, when they investigate the botched robbery where Patrick/H ended up as the hero.

Agent King orders Hibbard and Okey not to let on that they know H’s real identity and to keep tabs on why this crime boss is working at an armored truck company. Eddie Marsan, a very talented actor, has a very useless role in “Wrath of Man,” as an office assistant named Terry. Terry becomes suspicious of who H really is, because in his heroic rescue, H showed the type of expert combat skills that contradicts the mediocrity that he displayed in the company’s training.

And just who’s in this group of murderous thieves? They’re led by mastermind Jackson (played by Jeffrey Donovan), a married man with two kids who lives a double life. This seemingly mild-mannered family man works in a shopping mall. But he also apparently has time to lead a group of armored truck thieves, who pose as street construction workers when they commit their robberies. The robbers use a concrete mixer truck to block the armored truck and then ambush the people inside the armored truck.

What’s really dumb about “Wrath of Man” is that these armed robbers use the same tactic every time. In real life, repeating this very cumbersome way of committing an armed robbery would make them easier to catch, not harder. Apparently, these dimwits think that the best way to not call attention to yourself during a robbery is to haul out a giant concrete mixer truck.

Jackson’s crew consists of a bunch of mostly generic meatheads: Brad (played by Deobia Oparei), Sam (played by Raúl Castillo), Tom (played by Chris Reilly) and Carlos (played by Laz Alonzo), with Jan (played by Scott Eastwood) as the loose cannon in the group. Guess who pulled the trigger on Patrick/H/Mason’s son Dougie? Guess who’s going to have a big showdown at the end of the movie?

Of course, a crime boss has to have his own set of goons. Patrick/H/Mason has three thugs who are closest to him and who do a lot of his dirty work: Mike (played by Darrell D’Silva), Brendan (played by Cameron Jack) and Moggy (played by Babs Olusanmokun). There’s a vile part of the movie that shows Patrick/H/Mason ordering his henchman to beat up and torture anyone who might have information on who murdered Dougie. The operative word here is “might,” because some people who had nothing to do with the murder are brutally assaulted.

Mike has a conscience and he says that he won’t commit these vicious attacks anymore to try to find Dougie’s killer. Mike advises Patrick/H/Mason to think of another way to find the murderer. And that’s when Patrick/H/Mason got the idea to go “undercover” at Fortico, with the hope that he could catch the murderous thieves in their next heist on a Fortico truck.

And what do you know, this gang of thieves will be doing “one last heist” on a Fortico truck, to get a haul that’s said to be at least $150 million. What could possibly go wrong? You know, of course.

Ritchie’s previous film “The Gentlemen” (which was also about gangsters and theives) had a lot of devilishly clever dialogue and crackled with the type of robust energy that hasn’t been seen in his movies in years. And although “The Gentlemen” wasn’t a perfect film about criminal antics, it at least made the effort to have memorable characters and to keep viewers guessing about which character was going to come out on top. “Wrath of Man” is a completely lazy film that has no interesting characters, no suspense, and not even any eye-popping stunts. It’s just a silly shoot ’em up flick that’s as empty as Statham’s dead-eyed stares.

Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) Pictures and Miramax Films will release “Wrath of Man” in U.S. cinemas on May 7, 2021.