A new Jason Statham movie that almost works.
“Mutiny” is the new Jason Statham thriller that comes this close to being good-far better than “Hobbs and Shaw,” “Expend4bles,” “The Beekeeper,” “A Working Man,” and “Shelter.” It’s a boat thriller that has an interesting set-up that might change the actor’s tune a bit, but it ends up being weakened by cliches and routine fight scenes. Sometimes, the violence works, and other times, it feels too flimsy to be entertaining. It’s the kind of routine movie that would work if it only broaden the elements a bit more.
Statham plays Cole Reed, a former cop now working in Bangkok as the personal bodyguard for an industrialist billionaire named Tibu (Ramon Tikaram), who ends up dead after an ambush. His dying wish is that he looks after his son Kameron (Chaneil Kular). But the police were among the bad guys, so he can’t trust anyone at this moment.
The dead billionaire’s company owns the KMG Artemis cargo ship, which Cole is now forced to sneak onto using his dead father’s ID in order to find the real killers. But in one of the crates, he finds out there are trafficked refugees-adults and children who are wounded, scared, and parched. So, he has to prove his innocence and save them at the same time.
Among the supporting actors, Roland Moller plays the ship’s captain Marko Madsen, who is the mastermind of the trafficking, while Annabelle Wallis plays Angie Ellis, a single mother and the good third mate on the ship, who collaborates with Cole to fight the villains. She’s a smart woman, who senses when her boss is up to no good, when she tells him about the refugee situation, and he tells her to sit down and that she’s doing a good job. It’s his tone of voice that really convinces her of his nature, and it convinced me, too.
The refugees are given less to work with, as most of the time they’re subdued by the traffickers, and the one guy who could thrive against them is killed off way too early. You would think that someone would rise to occasion, but they have to be victims without any character development. If they are supposed to be victims, and if this is an action movie, then I guess that’s what the film wanted.
Statham puts a lot of effort in Cole, who has went through a loss and tries to take a different direction to move on with his life. And he’s able to thrive on the action that pops up. After all, he has made a name for himself in the action movie world, whether people like his films or not. And Wallis gives credible work as the third mate, who succumbs to no formulas and deals with them head on. They’re both likable with the right dialogue and consistency.
So, I’m coming this close to recommending “Mutiny,” but I have to go against it, because of how little it handles the subject matter and how standard and predictable the villains are. This is director Jean-Francois Richet’s first movie since “Plane,” and that was the better thriller regarding a vehicle, which featured a plane. This one is on a ship, and the genre has taken place on one before in “Captain Phillips” and “Under Siege,” among others. It does work, and it should work, but the story and villains never give it enough credit.
There will be a day when I give a new Statham movie a positive review, and I’m still close with “Mutiny,” but it’s still not the one to deliver. No ship, Sherlock.
