2024   Amazon MGM Studios

Rated:  R

Length:  1 hr  41min

Action ~ Drama

Directed by:  Pierre Morel

Starring:  Kate Beckinsale, Rupert Friend, Ray Stevenson, Saffron Burrows, and Jaz Hutchins.

“There’s a file….Canary Black…….you’re going to steal it from your agency. If you fail your husband dies.”

Kate Beckinsale stars as a top CIA operative, Avery Graves. Avery is blackmailed by terrorists into betraying her own country to save her kidnapped husband. Cut off from her team, she turns to her underworld contacts to help locate the coveted intelligence that the kidnappers want. As she is betrayed at every turn, Avery finds herself in a deadly race to deliver a ransom that could trigger a global crisis.

In the very first scene, Kate Beckinsale is wearing a blonde wig that reminds me of Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde. In fact they almost look identical. And the plot is almost the same, Spy operative is tasked with an impossible mission to extract the priceless file everybody is dying over. Avery graves then scales down the side of a very tall building and kills numerous armed bad men so can she can execute the target in his own swimming pool. All while still wearing the wig.

Then she shows up at home where her husband of three years is making her dinner because it is their anniversary. Some very cheesy gifts are exchanged and then they go out for dinner. Her Husband is played by Rupert Friend and he apparently has no idea she’s a CIA operative and lethal. Rupert is an English actor and I am not familiar with him, but my first thoughts in that first scene with him were:

• Yo, where’d you get those glasses, I would ditch them.
• She married you? Really?
• What’s up with the thick Irish accent, it sucks, actually it’s annoying. And aren’t you playing an Englishman in this movie.

The dialogue and chemistry between them seemed forced, I didn’t really get the vibe that they had known each other and been married for three years. It was almost as if they were strangers forced into a scene.

There were some other scenes and dialogue throughout the movie that felt the same way to me, forced, wasn’t really feeling the vibe. It just felt a little off. Jaz Hutchins who plays Agent Mayfield was horrible. It was some really bad over the top acting. Reminded me of Gerard Butler in LAST SEEN ALIVE. Even the plot and characters just seemed off, forced. I mean Kate did good trying to pull it all together for everybody else but it seemed lacking.

Pierre Morel also directed Taken and Peppermint which I really like, Peppermint is one of my favorites actually. But this one missed the mark, something didn’t work out right. I like Kate Beckinsale but I think Jennifer Garner did a better job in Peppermint. I went in with high expectations and was looking forward to a new spy action thriller. I did enjoy it in spite of the flaws, but on the other side of watching I don’t feel like I could recommend it.

So, that’s just a wave of the hand as in so-so, it was just alright and I can’t recommend it.