By Ruth Ferguson, NDG Editor
So now we know what Ryan Reynolds will likely look when he is hits his senior years: a grizzled Kevin Costner. The two co-star in a very high octane, cover your eyes sometimes Criminal. We all love a good top government secret action flick and on the action Criminal delivers in spades. It is the attempt at emotion this is off the mark. Ariel Vromen, Israel born director, clearly was not in touch with his feminine side.
Reynolds plays Bill Pope, a CIA agent living in London who is handling a hacker who could shut down the U.S. military with the click of a button. But unfortunately (don’t tell his number one fan, Sasha Obama) he gets killed on the job. His crazy boss played well by Gary Oldman, reaches out to grumpy mad scientist Dr. Franks (Tommy Lee Jones) who has spent 18 years figuring out how to take someone else’s memories and implant them in the mind of another person. And guess who gets to be the first human trial. Yes, a criminal that is so crazy (Costner’s Jericho) he feels no more remorse about killing a man than you would killing a fly.
The action in this flick is edge of your seat good, but the attempt at emotion will make you scream. The let’s make Frankenstein a gentle monster thread is fine as Jericho struggles to deal with the fact he is developing “feelings.” What was astonishingly distracting was the decisions of Pope’s wife, played by Gal Gadot. A man ties you up and goes to your daughter’s bedroom and somewhere along the line you decide to believe his fantastic story and the three of you are making waffles together? Um, interesting choices for a mother.
If Criminal simply stuck with the action this would be a much stronger movie. Costner and Oldman deliver serviceable performances. Enjoy the drama, but if you buy the attempt at feelings, you probably need your head examined.
Criminal is in wide release today.
