Monday, 6 August 2018

CRIMINAL *

A cross between a sci-fi movie and a convoluted CIA thriller, "Criminal" is neither fish nor fowl but a better than average cast, (Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Michael Pitt and an underused Ryan Reynolds), and some first-rate action sequences do go some way towards making up for the huge lapses in credibility; some way, but not enough to make this feel like something out of the Jason Bourne franchise. It's also a bit of a stretch to accept Costner, now 62, as a no-holds-barred action hero even if his over-the-top, cast-against-type performance is hugely entertaining. Also on the plus side, director Ariel Vromen makes excellent use of his London locations though to be fair, this could have been filmed anywhere. It's certainly watchable and Douglas Cook and David Weisberg's script does play on the comic potentials of the situation, though you get the impression that Oldman, Jones and especially Reynolds are only in it for the money.

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