It’s August, which means that there are still some summer movies coming out, but not the ones the studios expect big things from. These are the days where the summer movies are more questionable, not necessarily bad, but more like they aren’t as anticipated as, say, whatever the MCU puts out or a Christopher Nolan movie or something. So, there may be a good action movie out there, but not one that stars an A-List actor.
The point is, I went to see the new action movie Mutiny, staring Jason Statham.
Cole Reed (Statham) is the head of security and personal bodyguard to Tibu Campallo (Ramon Tikaram), a Bankok-based, self-made shipping tycoon. Tibu is in the process of selling his company for a large sum when, after a party, he and Cole are ambushed by corrupt cops. While Cole manages to fight his way out, Tibu dies, and Cole becomes the prime suspect thanks to the evil rich guy at the top. As one of the dead men is a crewman from one of Tibu’s company ships, and Cole bears something of a resemblance to the dead man, he takes the guy’s place and sneaks onto the ship to investigate.
That turns out to be a good thing because, as the trailers reveal, among the many cargo crates is a group of refugees being human trafficked by the ship’s crew, save a last-minute replacement, third mate Angie Ellis (Annabelle Wallis). Cole need evidence, at least for himself, who was behind the death of Tibu, a boss, friend, and father-figure to Cole, and he’ll want to save the refugees and get himself and Angie to safety. I’d ask if he could do it at this point in the paragraph, but this is a Jason Statham action movie. You knew he would before the opening credits rolled.
That, really, is the best way to describe this movie: it’s a very familiar sort of movie. You don’t go to a movie like this to be surprised by plot twists, heal turns, or the like. Statham isn’t the sort of actor to show a lot of emotional range, and he does his best when working with director Guy Ritchie. Ritchie isn’t directing this one, but fortunately, the scenes set on the boat actually work very well. The movie takes advantage of every conceivable inch of the cargo ship and has some rather good close-quarters fight scenes. If you’re going to have a predictable action movie, then at least make it a recognizably predictable one. I may have seen everything coming on the ship, but I was entertained by how the pacing went, the action sequences, and bad guys who had it comin’ when Cole caught up to them.
True, the scenes on land were a lot less interesting, owing perhaps to the fact that they were there for the sort of standard scenes to introduce Cole, get us to care about Tibu before his death, and the like. This is a movie that lives and dies by its action scenes, and when those aren’t happening, there isn’t much to recommend. But when they are, well, this movie works a lot better than I thought it would.
Grade: B-
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