“Mutiny”
“Mutiny” (95 min, Rated R for strong/bloody violence and strong profanity) 6 out of 10
When you think of iconic film action stars over the last 50 or so years, most people come up with Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal…even Jean-Claude Van Damme. I put Tom Cruise and Clint Eastwood in different categories. In recent years, it’s been Vin Diesel, Gerard Butler and, yes, even Liam Neeson. Not a bad list, but none of them compare to what Jason Statham has accomplished. He’s the all-time action-star champ, hands-down.
The now 59-yr old Statham has been featured in over 50 films since 1998, most of them as the stoic antihero hero who, in most cases, solely faces off against corrupt villains who are trying to do harm to some innocent person or family, etc. In the “Expendables” and “Fast & Furious” films, he was part of an ensemble, but his characters are almost always depicted as loners. This is where he draws his inner strength from…loners who live within ethical boundaries with a strong moral center.
This is the kind of character he loves to play…the nameless hapless hero who fights for justice as much as for vengeance, payback if you will, like in “The Transporter” films, and just about every film he’s been in. In “Mutiny,” he plays Cole Reed, an ex-military, ex-London cop-turned-bodyguard (and a one-man wrecking crew) who chauffeurs for a kindhearted Bangkok bossman. But when he’s viciously murdered, it’s time for payback. It leads him to a container cargo ship bound for L.A. which is full of dimwitted cutthroat henchmen working for their sniveling captain (Rolland Moller).
One-by-one, Cole’s stealthily clandestine movements systematically decimate the ship’s thugs which is further complicated with one of the ship’s crewmates, Angie (Annabelle Wallis), an attractive (figures) single mom eager to see her young daughter in L.A. Clearly, this character is a plot device thrown in to give Statham another problem to deal with. She gets caught up in a myriad of high-action fight sequences whom Cole has to protect. When it turns out the ship is carrying human cargo bound to America for sale…human trafficking…it raises the stakes even higher.
Also accused of committing a crime he didn’t commit, the ex-special forces operative, which he suppresses, like his characters always do…never looking for trouble, but always seems to find him… launches into action mode mowing down the bad guys with face-to-face bone-crunching blows to the head and body. It’s done in rapid style, enhanced for effect by close-up quickly-edited camerawork. Heck, how could anyone at 59 fight like this without a little help from the cameraman?
Once again, Statham has cast himself into the same character he usually plays in an endless string of brainless kick-ass hard-hitting action films, playing the righteous avenging assassin. I can’t remember the last time I saw Statham take his shirt or jacket off…he’s always clothed head-to-foot in all his roles. What’s he hiding? As scripted by J.P. Davis and Lindsay Michel and directed by Jean-Francois Richet, who have worked on Gerard Butler films, it’s just another typical Statham film.
This is exactly what bothers me about Statham’s films…they lack imagination, invention and mostly originality. He has two or three more films already lined-up for the next couple years, which I suspect will be retreads like this one. He is a force to be reckoned with in cinematic circles, carving his own niche in the pantheon of film action stars who still has enough gas in the tank to keep churning them out in assembly-line fashion. There’s still an audience for him…so why not?
“Mutiny” opened at theaters on August 21st.
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