Criminal (2016), R, ★

Kevin Costner as the Criminal.

I was lucky to live long enough to see some '90s action films for entertainment and not for logic. There are many action movies that are sorely entertaining at best because of its action stars and explosive sequences: The Rock, Con Air, Face/Off, Air Force One, True Lies, Terminator 2 and The Matrix. The last one of the bunch is a good Segway because this movie attempts to combine an action thriller with science fiction but it tries to do it competently well. However, it felt like an old-fashioned flashback to the 90s because the action is well-staged but the story is so convoluted that you don't care for the movie anymore. It becomes a generic product of disbelief.

Anarchist Xavier Heimdahl (Jordi Mollà) arranges for the Dutchman (Michael Pitt) to create a wormhole program to bypass computer codes protecting the nuclear defense codes. He panics and makes contact with Bill Pope (Ryan Reynolds), a London-based agent. But, he is captured and tortured to death by Heimdahl's men. Quaker Wells (Gary Oldman), a CIA supervisor, contacts Dr. Mahal Franks (Tommy Lee Jones) to plant the memory patterns of a dead man onto a living one to find the Dutchman.

To keep Pope's brain stimulated to preserve its knowledge, Franks requests that convict Jericho Stewart (Kevin Costner) be the subject, as his past impacts his brain as a result of childhood brain trauma. While the process becomes unsuccessful, Jericho fakes his death and escapes, heading to Pope's house. As time goes on, he experiences some memories of Pope's past, determining where a bag of money is hidden, whether or not if it has something to do with the Dutchman. All of the movie  is regarding how neat the action sequences are and the plot really puzzling us into finding the Dutchman.

Gary Oldman on the move.

This movie is like having a kid in a focus group arranging different characters' lines and storylines around no matter what the order is and the marketing department shows the producers, writers and director this and they say, "Ok, let's go shoot a movie." This is an egregiously baffling and unbelievable movie that is by-the-numbers action sequences and a plot that does not make sense. It's a 90s film with not much logic and the sequences do not save the movie.

All of the actors in the movie look tired and is just there to get the paycheck. Kevin Costner was on a roll until this movie came along but he looks he is as lost as the audience. Gary Oldman and Tommy Lee Jones look like grumpy old men shooting it up and saying dialogue that is over our head. Alice Eve has a role that has nothing to offer. And, Gal Gadot just simply plays the wife with problems. Plus, the villain is not that interesting with Jordi Mollà at the helm.

Somehow, Ryan Reynolds likes movies in which he switches roles like in Self/less (which Seconds and Face/Off are better movies) or Deadpool in which he switches personas. Maybe, in exception to Deadpool, he can't do any movies in which he switches roles again. This is a ludicrous and generic action thriller that just gets old-timers together to get a paycheck no matter how convoluted and unentertaining the movie is for the audience. This is a tiresome script shoehorned with plot holes and scenery-chewing performances that everybody will forget. It is a contender for one of the worst movies of 2016.

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