Brief Story Line
Ada (Kate Beckinsale - Jolt, Underworld movies etc) was a former Special Forces agent who had retired and decided to lead normal life with her only daughter Charlotte (Isabelle Moxley) while taking care of her depressed brother Edward (Rasmus Hardiker - Krypton TV series, Cockneys vs. Zombies etc). However, when Charlotte was kidnapped by London's strongest gangsters led by Frasier Mahoney (Charles Dance - The Day of the Jackal TV series, Godzilla II: King of the Monsters etc), Ada had no choice but to work together with her old friends from the forces, Roman (Lewis Tan - Mortal Kombat 2021 version, Shadow and Bones season 2 etc) and Curtis (Bailey Patrick - London Kills TV series etc) to perform a heist job on Frasier's competitor Christina Vine (Alice Krige - Star Trek: First Contact, The Rig season 2 etc).
Ada and Roman had planned the heist carefully which would involve another group of people called Mushka street gang trying to gain power in London with total disregard to the police and other gangs. But things did not really go as planned for Anna's team and they had to improvise as they go.
So what would happen to Ada and her friends & family? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Well I can't say that I did not expect this to be bad, but what I did not foresee was how terrible it was. The movie actually had a quite promising start with fast paced heist action scene, however it quickly turned into something so messy and chaotic but not in a good way. It seemed the movie makers tried hard to make an intelligent story telling by going back and forth (including that scene when Edward was telling his story). They probably tried to mimic Guy Ritchie's style though sadly they totally failed at it.
The only good thing about this film to me was the action sequence which surprisingly were pretty well executed. Kate Beckinsale & Lewis Tan in particular were good in the action scenes. I think the director James Nunn (not to be mistaken for James Gunn) had a knack for doing this part, supported by decent fight choreographers to make them enjoyable to see. Nunn was not known for his major blockbuster films, though his earlier works did include action movies like One Shot (starring Scott Adkins, Ryan Phillipe) with its sequels and monster horror Shark Bait. Unfortunately this film did not exactly improve his portfolio. Another thing that might contributed to the lack of quality was the script which was written by Dominic Burns (writer of Madness in the Method, Allies etc).
The film had a duration of 99 minutes without any mid or post end credit scene. It was a British production and shot in London & Sofia, Bulgaria with mostly British cast. Aside from the names I mentioned above, there were also appearances of Tom Bennet (Love & Friendship, House of the Dragon TV series etc) as Curtis' old friend Galloway, Mathilde Warnier (Summit Fever, A Very Secret Service TV series etc) as underground information provider Cia, Edmund Kingsley (Dirty Angels, Capsule etc) as the fencer Finlay and few others in minor roles. Btw I did notice Kate Beckinsale as one of the executive producers which was quite surprising.
Critics were understandably not impressed by the film and not sure if audience liked it either. I think it was a box office bomb and did not even make a splash when released in the US November last year. Yes, it was indeed quite late released in Indonesia even though it was already promoted in the coming soon section for few months. Overall this was pretty disappointing. Despite the good efforts of making the action sequence entertaining, the writing and directing in general did not help to make this an enjoyable movie. So if you just want to see some exciting enough action scenes, then this film would probably satisfy you. But if you wish to enjoy a solid action movie, then I believe this would not be to your liking.
Mike's movie moments rating: 2 out of 5 stars
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