Disillusioned by the end of the war in Afghanistan, a group of disgraced, war torn ex-CIA operators set out to Tehran to take down a life changing score.
Chuck says:
Cast: Zachary Levi, Liam Neeson, Quincy Isaiah, Wes Chatham, Jake Choi, Augusto Aguilera, Elnaaz Guy Moshe’s “The Fix” is a three-act film in search of a purpose. Then again, it could be considered three-movies-in-one, none of them particularly compelling. I’d be hard-pressed to recall an action film done with such little enthusiasm. This is a by-the-numbers, rote exercise that finds each performer simply going through the motions in the service of a painfully predictable script. That is, until the end, when numerous third-act twists cascade from the sky, as if some writer’s “break-in-need-of-inspiration” bag had been opened, thrown in the air and every desperate plot device had come tumbling out.
The time is 2021, the place is the Kabul Airport and as US Armed Forces are trying to defend the facility and get American citizens and their ally’s safe passage out of the country, an elite force is prepared to go back in. Cut from the same cloth of capable, no-nonsense stoicism as all other movie tough, the group is led by Tucker (Zachary Levi). His superior, Larry (Liam Neeson), a wizard of Black-Ops, has called him in along with Clay (Quincy Isaiah), Charlie (Jake Choi), Alex (Wes Chatham), Bruce (Augusto Aguilera) and Matt (Grant Harvey) to find an Afghani asset who’s been taken. Their mission is to rescue him or kill him before he divulges key intel. They succeed, forced to take the more heinous option but it appears as though Larry may have double-crossed them.
Jump ahead to movie two which takes place in modern day. Seems Larry has an aggressive form a dementia and is babbling things he shouldn’t. His wife calls Tucker for help and while visiting, his old mentor rambles on about having hid $25 million behind a wall at the Hotel Tehran in the 1980’s. What he doesn’t recall is the room number, however an old partner he had (Lara Wolf) just might. Tucker looks her up and, of course, she knows exactly where the cash is but there’s a catch. But there’s a catch: She won’t divulge it until our hero and his buds rescue her revolutionary daughter (Annet Mahndru) who’s being held in Tehran. In order to scope out the situation, Tucker hires Zara (Elnaaz Norouzi) to pose as his wife, so he can pretend to be a businessman seeking new opportunities.
Yes, there are many moving parts and I haven’t even gotten to the men-on-a-mission third act. (For those keeping score at home, the first part was “the men on a botched mission prologue,” while the second was “let’s’-get-the-gang-back-together-for-a-shot-at-redemption” section.) There’s nothing here that hasn’t been done better before. By the same token, there’s nothing here that couldn’t be given a fresh polish put and done successfully once more.
Unfortunately, Moshe’s languid approach dooms this from the start. I’m not sure if the film suffers from narrative bloat or if the story simply seems longer because its executed so blandly. While some of the action sequences are capably executed, there’s a distinct lack of urgency to the whole affair. Though Levi tries to bring a bit of a spark to the film, he and Norouzi doing fine work, everyone else is simply going through the paces. This as well as the predictable nature of the script make for a long haul, the movie clocking in at nearly two-and-a-half hours.
Then again, what with three plot twists in its last 20 minutes, I suppose an argument could be made that at least this section wasn’t predictable. While I thought the first was clever and the second was “meh,” by the time we got to the third I was rolling my eyes, the sense of desperation in Mark Bacci, Mark Hitchinson and Moshe’s script palpable.
While the writer’s politics are to be commended, much of what they are preaching from their soap box is low-hanging fruit. Like their film, there’s a sense of safety and familiarity to it all. While I take no exception to any artist taking a guarded approach, I draw the line when it comes to being bored by their efforts. “The Fix” manages to do just that, despite its excessive pyrotechnics budget.
2 Stars
