Courtney Howard // Film Critic
MUTINY
Rated R, 1 hour and 35 minutes
Directed by: Jean-François Richet
Starring: Jason Statham, Annabelle Wallis, Roland Møller, Adrian Lester, Ramon Tikaram, Chaneil Kular
MUTINY is exactly the kind of Summer actioner we all crave. It contains a high entertainment value, a streamlined, easily digestible plot and Jason Statham picking up a gun and going on a rampage. Director Jean-François Richet does a yeoman’s job, knowing precisely how to use his hero to his best advantages, kicking, punching and decimating wrongdoers. The pair elevate writers Lindsay Michel and J.P. Davis straightforward material, giving the proceedings an elevated heartbeat and effortlessly steely air. Blood-splattering, brutal and brawny, it gets the job done, scratching the itch for a satisfying, tight flick coming courtesy of Statham’s Punch Palace Productions (perhaps the best named star shingle ever).
Former cop and Marine commando-turned-private-security Cole Reed (Statham) enjoys his gig as a bodyguard for friend and mentor, Thai shipping tycoon Tibu Campallo (Ramon Tikaram). They play chess together. They trust each other implicitly. And they share in a surrogate father-son bond so strong Tibu gifts Cole with a fancy Rolex. Tibu and his real son Kameron (Chaneil Kular) are on the precipice of selling off the family business to Daniles (Simon Kluth) when tragedy strikes during an ambush, leaving Tibu dead and Cole understandably very suspicious of the circumstances, which frame him as the murder suspect. Naturally, his unwavering loyalty drives him to take on a vengeance-fueled mission.
Cole’s quest to find the perpetrators leads him directly to one of the company’s cargo ships commanded by an obviously crooked Captain Marko Madsen (Roland Møller), who has assembled an elite team of cutthroat mercenaries to guard a very special container aboard the Artemis. As Cole sneaks his way onto the vessel, ex-Navy officer Angie Ellis (Annabelle Wallis) begrudgingly has accepted the assignment to co-helm the rig. She’s eager to get home to her young daughter for her birthday and is disgruntled she’s been pulled back onto duty. The pair quickly figure out the seriousness of their situation and work together to overtake control from the bad men steering the ship.
Statham’s films, as of late, typically contain some kind of a larger social issue. He sought vengeance against scam artists in the cheeky THE BEEKEEPER, sex traffickers in the serious A WORKING MAN, rebelled against a technologically-enhanced police state in SHELTER, and now, with the kickass MUTINY, he turns his wrath on human traffickers. All house common themes of justice, revenge, loyalty, and protecting the innocent. And while all of these elements stoke a comfortably familiarity, it never comes across as derivative, nor reductive.
Though it takes about 10 minutes to find its footing in the initial first act set-up, the remaining runtime is swift. It invokes “in media res” correctly, starting our journey off on the finale’s last action-forward minutes, watching Statham’s truck crash into the corporate villain’s luxury SUV before cutting to black and flashing back on the timeline. The film allows both Statham and Wallis to accrue body counts and get their hands dirty while cleaning up the cargo ship they’re aboard. This might seem like a no-brainer element in an actioner, but some superstars these days on Statham’s level prefer not to not to embrace the necessary violence of heroics at a detriment to character and narrative construction.
Fight choreography and stunt work is exhilarating and surprisingly educational. We learn how to completely mess up our adversaries using only a padlock as a weapon. Cole’s obstacles seem realistic, but also blessedly enhanced with Movie Magic, from his weaponry of choice (an axe, fisherman’s hook and a spear gun, in addition to everyday knives and guns) to utilizing his high-price Rolex to break him out of a bind.
Richet, 2nd unit director Steve Griffin, editors David and Joe Rosenbloom and cinematographer Brendan Galvin’s strongest suits are the close quarters fight sequences, keeping the fisticuffs gritty, grizzled and a little gory with blood-splattering the camera occasionally. There’s a lot of Statham peeking around sharp corners of the cargo containers and living quarters. The tension surrounding the dangers that could be lurking around each corner escalates into one of the best shoot-‘em-up showdowns the way it’s constructed, edited and shot in this explosive sequence. Punches, kicks and bullets land, hitting not only their intended targets on screen, but also the audience witnessing the mayhem, wincing along in sympathy pain.
Statham and Wallis make for a solid pairing. Statham is given ample room to do what he does best: kick ass and eliminate his enemies. Each fight scene, he levels up. He’s a headstrong ball of ferocity and fire. Wallis infuses her character with a badass independence, formidable aptitude and strength without a need for rescue, nor coming across as some sort of cliché “strong female character.” They work in tandem with each other, sorta like splintered versions of one character.
While it may not quite reach the hilarity and heights of THE BEEKEEPER, there is a ton of value to Statham’s more serious work delivered in MUTINY. It checks all the boxes for the kind of absorbing one-man-army (or in this case one-man-and-one-woman-army) actioner that passes for seasonal frivolity. We’d be lucky if it’s the jump off point to a future franchise and creative partnership for the actor and director.
Grade: B+
MUTINY will be in theaters on August 21.
