Brief Story Line
When an important device referred to as "The Handle" was stolen by some thieves, the British government assigned Nathan (Cary Elwes - Black Christmas, Saw movies etc) to retrieve it immediately. Nathan subsequently hired their best agent named Orson Fortune (Jason Statham - Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw, The Expendables movies etc) who was supported by Sarah Fidel (Aubrey Plaza - Child's Play, Dirty Grandpa etc) and JJ (rapper Bugzy Malone). However, they also faced competition from another team led by Mike (Peter Ferdinando - Ghost in the Shell etc).
The device itself was going to be sold through international arms dealer Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant - The Undoing mini series, Music and Lyrics etc). In order to approach him, Orson's team enlisted the help from a famous actor named Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett - The Gentlemen, 40 Days and 40 Nights etc).
So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
To be honest, this movie's poster shown in Indonesian cinemas did not raise a lot of confidence as even though it starred Statham, but somehow it felt like a B movie. But then I noticed that it was directed by Guy Ritchie and once the movie started, I could immediately feel a distinct style that was usually felt when watching his films. The walking scene accompanied by that rhythmic background sound was quite unique. Anyway I also felt that the movie was having few humorous scenes (not the hilarious or slapstick style), but more like intelligent jokes.
To my surprise Statham managed to show his humorous side by his dialogues combined with his totally serious facial expressions. Obviously the fun would come from Cary Elwes whose character Nathan always used sarcasm when talking to others. My wife and I sometimes chuckled due to his words. The rest of the cast were OK as well, like Aubrey Plaza who liked to joke around (should not be a surprise as she is after all a comedian). Josh Hartnett was also pretty convincing as the actor and Hugh Grant was always a joy to see. Basically they all were natural in their roles.
Now comes the action part, which to me was what we came for. As usual Statham managed to deliver some high speed fight scenes that was awesome to watch. However, for an action comedy, there was a sense that Guy Ritchie this time focused more on the comedy. Despite the action sequence were quite good in some scenes, but I felt the climax was a bit underwhelming. It also lacked the spectacular scenes (probably because we could see that the villain would not be a proper match for Statham or due to modest budget). And for 114 minutes, it did not feel to have enough of those actions.
Btw, in case you are not aware, Ritchie and Statham had been working together many times before. This marked their 5th collaboration (previously Wrath of Man, Revolver, Snatch and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels). In fact there were few other actors here who had worked with Rithie before as well, like Josh Hartnett, Hugh Grant and Peter Ferdinando. Anyway, I think that if you are fan of Ritchie's style then likely you would enjoy this movie.
This film has a fun mid end credit scene but it did not have any post end credit scene. Throughout the movie, you would be shown some lovely places like Antalya, Turkey and Qatar. Oh, the sound effects were quite awesome even though it was not having the Dolby Atmos effect. Overall to me and my wife, we did enjoy few of the movie's traits like the action (Statham still showed us his good moves), some of the comedy and the spying stuff. But we would have liked it better if the action were more frequent and the fights were a bit more brutal like Statham's trademark (it has little violence which explained the teens rating in Indonesian cinemas). And I personally would prefer a much more spectacular climax fight to make it more worthwhile. So if you are interested in those attributes, you could give it a try as it is still playing in the theaters.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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