REVIEW:
Surprisingly a pretty good movie, this one works no for plot reasons than for action. Unlike the usual terrorist action movie or CGI action movie, this one is about a corrupt business establishment, and the man who keeps taking it down one level at a time. It’s about layers and going higher and higher up the food chain. In that way, it’s more like Taken than your usual action flick where there is just one villain and a bunch of goons as his henchmen.
Here we have the story of a company that rips people off financially, putting pop ups on their computers that say they have a virus and offering a number to call fur help. When people call in dnd give the company certain information, the company uses it to empty all accounts that have been in any way accessed through the computer. Watching the company rip people off has the Boiler Room meets Wolf of Wall Street vibe. And then we get Jason Statham as the specialist who comes in, out for revenge.
Statham is a pretty decent action movie star. He’s one of the rare actors who has spanned this genre and stayed with it, even when it had been on the decline. He’s a throwback to the great B level action flicks of the 80s and 90s, back when Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damne were bankable stars. Not all of Statham’s movies were good, but every once in a while he does turn out something pretty cool. The Mechanic. Wrath of Man. And now the Beekeeper.
Without going too far into the story, let’s just say Statham first move against this company is to actually blow up a building. Or an entire floor of a building. And that’s just getting things started. The movie features some pretty well-known actors including Jeremy Irons and Minnie Driver, and there’s a reason they took these parts. Let’s just say this isn’t the average action movie. It’s definitely not great… the action itself isn’t all that spectacular, but it’s a cut above the usual. One could safely say it’s the best action movie since Violent Night, which was another sort of throwback film (Die Hard meets Santa Claus.) This one isn’t quite as much fun as that, but it’s still pretty enjoyable.