The premise of G20 is inherently silly. There’s no getting past it. It might as well be called ‘Viola Davis: Action President’. Because this is a movie where Viola Davis is not just any POTUS — her Danielle Sutton is arguably more combat-ready than her own security detail, forced to spring into action, take down the baddies, and save several other world leaders when a G20 summit in Cape Town is hijacked by crypto-bro terrorists. America, fuck yeah!
Frankly, it should veer on the side of bad-stupid. Instead, solid action, zippy pacing, and the undeniable star power of Davis herself tips G20 onto the right side of good-stupid – an undemanding but entertaining throwbacky romp that takes itself just seriously enough. While the material here is much lighter than, say, Widows or The Woman King, Davis attacks it with much the same gusto. She’s believable as both President (a no-brainer, really) and tactically minded action hero – especially since the screenplay tees up Sutton’s Oval Office tenure as the result of a military background.
Try not to grin when Davis rips off the bottom half of her evening dress; all the better to kick bad guys in the face.
Daft as it all is, the G20 summit is a fun setting for a Die Hard-lite action-thriller, with Sutton taking several fellow global leaders under her wing. British Prime Minister Oliver Everett (Douglas Hodge) is initially sceptical of her abilities; Italian figurehead Elena (The White Lotus’ Sabrina Impacciatore, underused here) spirals into a panic attack when the terrorists take over; South Korean First Lady Han Min-Seo (MeeWha Alana Lee) wisely sticks close to Sutton. Leading the takeover is Antony Starr, here reverting to his Antipodean accent as Rutledge, a cookie-cutter baddie seeking to pull off a crypto-currency coup. Since Starr is adept at oozing menace — see The Boys’ super-bad super-man, Homelander — he can do this kind of thing with his eyes closed.
Most importantly, the action is largely well-staged — not up to the exceptional levels of a John Wick, but not cut to ribbons like so many mid-tier action films either. Director Patricia Riggen keeps it clear where everyone is and what they’re doing, while the fight choreography has just enough oomph. Try not to grin when Davis rips off the bottom half of her evening dress; all the better to kick bad guys in the face.
It is nonsense, and subject to the usual pitfalls of streaming actioners: every external shot looks green-screened to hell; the dialogue feels dumbed down for second-screen viewing (“You created all of this, with your corrupt wars and your profiteering!” goes Rutledge’s villain monologue); and the plot feels like a topical jumble of buzzwords (AI! Deepfakes! Bitcoin!).
But, disposable as it all is, G20 delivers exactly what it sets out to: decent sofaplex thrills that’ll go down easy on a Friday night, in which the President snaps a mercenary’s neck with a machine gun. She’s got our vote.