Having put words into Gerard Butler’s mouth for London Has Fallen (mostly f-bomb-laden insults lobbed at terrorists), Christian Gudegast here turns director for a film that channels the cops ‘n’ robbers style of Michael Mann’s Heat. The result, sadly, is more of a mild simmer that only occasionally boils over into either tense heist scenes or Butler snacking on the scenery.
It’s strictly seen-it-all-before crime thriller territory.
Jumping into the role of “Big” Nick O’Brien, leader of a team of LA County Sheriffs who are on a mission to stop a talented group of criminals pulling off daring robberies, Butler has pumped and puffed himself up. He enjoys scenes that mostly revolve around the character proving himself the alpha male in the room, or scooping up a donut from a crime scene to show how he Doesn’t Follow The Rules™. This is, as you might expect, a film where burly blokes don bulletproof vests and swap shots at each other, while the women are either shrewish wives, weeping hostages or stripper girlfriends. But even the guys, outside of Pablo Schreiber’s canny criminal and Butler’s boorish bobby, get the barest nod towards character. O’Shea Jackson has some actual moments beyond his part in the robbery, while 50 Cent gets about five words, and the rest of the criminals are ciphers. The officers backing up Butler, meanwhile, aren’t given even that much thought.
Gudegast stages one effective sequence that generates real tension, but otherwise it’s strictly seen-it-all-before crime thriller territory, to the point that you could open one of those I-Spy books and spot the various expected story moments: the strip club, the early meeting between the leads, the tooling-up scene, etc.
Brief Butler quips aside, there’s little enjoyment to be had, and even Nick’s macho posturing grows tiresome before the final reel. If this were more concerned with clever crimes and less with the posturing plod, there might be more to recommend this but as it stands this is one crime thriller not worth doing time for.
