Estranged half-brothers Jonny and James reunite after their father’s mysterious death. As they search for the truth, buried secrets reveal a conspiracy threatening to tear their family apart.
Chuck says:
With the coming of sound to the film industry in 1927, the movie musical was born. Studios were so eager to promote the new technology through song and dance, there was a glut of musicals that nearly killed the genre before it could gain a head of steam. In 1929, 70 were produced. In 1930, the number rose to 92. The result with audiences was an initial fascination and a very quick aversion. And while studios continued to produce these movies at this pace for the next few years, many were box office failures, viewers having tired of them in record time.
I think the action genre, as well as the superhero movie, is in a similar situation. The bloom is off the rose where they’re concerned and I think were a moratorium of a year or two placed on each, it would benefit each genre financially and artistically. What with the “Mission: Impossible” and “John Wick” franchises, the bar has been risen where stunts, chases and gun battles are concerned. Conjuring something that proves genuinely eye-popping and thrilling has become a tall order.
To their credit, director Angel Manuel Soto and screenwriter Jonathan Tropper try to shake things up with their actioner “The Wrecking Crew,” at least initially. Beginning as a police procedural, with a dose of family drama, the fil, gets off to a promising start. Unfortunately, the movie can’t escape its genre conventions, its last half hour a rote exercise in excess.
Estranged half-brothers James and Jonny Hale (Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa) are brought back together by the unexpected death of their father. Initially thought to be a hit-and-run, further investigation raises questions about their private-eye dad’s killing. Being attacked by a trio of Yakuza ninjas tends to raise such suspicions.
Reluctantly, the Hales combine their respective skill sets – James is a Navy Seal, Jonny is a cop – to find the truth behind their father’s demise. Before all is said and done, a real estate corruption scheme is exposed, half of Honolulu is torn to shreds and familial rifts are mended.
The pairing of Bautista and Mamoa is the film’s strong suit, their antagonistic chemistry providing enough energy to this tired exercise to make it seem, if not fresh, at least passably entertaining. Regarding the mystery that brings the Hales together, it really is nothing special, ultimately playing out as a “Chinatown”-like scheme that has become so overused, it served as the backbone for Disney’s “Zootopia.”
Of course, the bread-and-butter of films like “Crew” are the action sequences, which are surprisingly sparse and modest during its first half. An inspired, close quarters fist fight between Mamoa and a trio of knife-wielding Yakuza is a hoot, our hero using a variety of household items (watch out for that cheese grater!) to dispatch them with aplomb. Unfortunately, a rather mundane gun battle brings the first hour to an end.
Like a thoroughbred who saves up enough energy to make a final sprint in the home stretch, Soto and Tropper backload the movie with its most elaborate set pieces. However, they go a bit too far. An elaborate car chase on a bridge employing SUVS, motorcycles and a helicopter is initially thrilling but overstays its welcome and proves far too violent. When a bad guy’s arm is ripped from his body, gun still in hand, you’ve reached a level of violence that’s not only gratuitous but unnecessary. And there’s no escaping the fact that the final showdown, featuring an assault on a heavily-fortified compound by the heavily-armed siblings, is so predictable it incites yawns rather than thrills.
Much like the action genre, Bautista looks a bit tired throughout. Hats off to the 56-year-old actor for being able to muster the energy to get through the elaborate actions scenes he’s required to execute. It’s far more than 90% of the men his age could accomplish but much less than the younger, quicker co-stars he’s paired with who make his actions seem snail-like in comparison. Thankfully, he’s a capable actor who’ll, once the time comes, be able to segue out of these films.
In the end, it’s not that “The Wrecking Crew” is a bad film so much as an unnecessary one. It and so many of its ilk are in desperate need of innovation. Now had this been an action film-musical, that would have been something.
2 1/2 Stars
