Director: Ariel Vromen
Cast : Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Godot
Hollywood lives in a dystopian world with storylines that scream plot holes loud and clear from the trailers itself. However, the films manage to capture the interest of the audience with its execution. What happens when despite a commendable cast, the film's director and writer are unable to execute the already shoddy script? A borderline disaster.
'Criminal' sees the same fate. Despite having the likes of Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones and Ryan Reynolds, this Ariel Vromen directorial venture fails to keep the audience invested.
The film is about a brain-damaged, sociopathic convict implanted with the memories of a dead CIA agent, giving him a three-day window to unravel an international conspiracy, and perhaps also learn the meaning of love, before the effects wear off.
The surgery is performed faster than you can imagine the diagram of a neuron and the pace never stops after that. Everything happens so quickly that at one point you start getting uneasy with the confusion and too much action on screen.
There’s some unintentional comic potential in the scenes, as Jerico's (Costner) street thug instincts start to clash with emerging elements of Pope’s (Reynolds) personality. Remembering Pope’s old address and security code, Jerico breaks into his house and seems poised to rape his widow, Jill (Gadot), only to find rushes of unfamiliar emotions have left him incapable of harming her or Pope’s daughter, Emma (Lara Decaro).
However, no matter how silly the plot may seem, the acting of Costner, especially when he meets Pope's family, is gripping and make you feel his emotional turmoil. Gadot and Costner both try their best to sell these odd domestic scenes, but the script doesn’t give them much to work upon.
The film is full of action and gunshots, enough to satisfy most action genre fans, but the film ends up out of its element trying to be more philosophical and full of emotional depth. It would've been better if the film tried to be just a 'no-brain' (literally) action entertainer.
Last year, we saw a dying Ben Kingsley transplanting his mind into the body of Ryan Reynolds in 'Selfless'. Now, a dying Reynolds has his mind transplanted into the body of Kevin Costner. What's up with Reynolds and mindless-ness, that's the question one needs to ask him!
"They messed with my brain…" complains Costner’s damaged-goods criminal in the opening voiceover of the film. Well, audience leaves the theater saying the same.
Wait for it to air on TV or Netflix, till then chill and watch 'JFK' or 'Dances With The Wolves' on repeat to see Costner's real potential!
Ratings: 2/5
Comments
0 comment