‘Mutiny’ Review: Jason Statham is On a Boat

August 19, 2026

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Jason Statham as Cole Reed in Mutiny … ’nuff said? (CREDIT: Dan Smith/Lionsgate)

Starring: Jason Statham, Annabelle Wallis, Jason Wong, Roland Møller, Arnas Fedaravicius, Adrian Lester, Ramon Tikaram

Director: Jean-François Richet

Running Time: 95 Minutes

Rating: R for The Typical Violence and Language of This Genre

Release Date: August 21, 2026 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Ex-Marine Cole Reed (Jason Statham) has been laying low ever since the death of his father. He’s now serving as the bodyguard/chess rival to retiring Thai shipping magnate Tibu Campallo (Ramon Tikaram), but all, of course, is not so peaceful as it may seem. While Cole is driving Tibu home one evening (what is this, The Transporter?), they’re lethally ambushed, and Cole is framed for Tibu’s execution. As he sets out to achieve vengeance, he makes his way onto a cargo ship, where he ends up squaring off the dastardly captain (Roland Møller). He also unexpectedly teams up with third mate Angie (Annabelle Wallis), who would much rather be spending time with her young daughter but instead uncovers a human trafficking operation hidden within the vessel.

What Made an Impression?: Just the Fisticuffs, Thanks: On a Jason Statham Scale of Derangement that goes from “Some Movie I Can’t Remember the Name Of” to Crank, Mutiny scores about a 4. Or maybe just a 2. But the sort of 2 that is plenty satisfying if you’re into the no-frills straightforward action sort of thing.
Fight Choreo Eval: So since this is a straightforward action movie, what do the combat scenes actually deliver? For the most part, Cole and his adversaries face off via fairly close range gunfire, but the real fun commences when they go more mano a mano. There’s one satisfyingly gnarly moment when Cole whips out a knife to demonstrate his precision cutting skills. But other than that, Mutiny isn’t trying to wow us with any unusual and/or inventive moves. Instead, it offers the simple pleasures of cleanly shot action between clearly defined combatants, and that’s not nothing.
We Ought to Recognize Him: Is Jason Statham one of our most consistent actors working today? He’s not always as sublime as he is in the aforementioned Crank or allowed to be as loosey-goosey as he was in Spy. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen him give a bad performance. And Mutiny is just the latest concurring evidence of that. You know the baseline that he guarantees, and that’s not to be sneezed at.
Remaining on Standby: You know who delivers a subtly terrific supporting performance in Mutiny? Adrian Lester, that’s who. He’s not someone I was terribly familiar with (if at all) before this. And as a Navy captain responding to a distress call sent by Angie, he doesn’t do much besides stand still and answer the phone. But you know what? That’s an essential role in this genre, and Lester pulls it off about as well as anyone ever has. His authority is not to be questioned.

Mutiny is Recommended If You: Need your Annual Dose of Statham

Grade: 3 out of 5 Stowaways

Does ‘Mercy’ (the Movie) Take Mercy (the Virtue) on Our Souls?

January 27, 2026

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Is this the face of mercy? (CREDIT: Amazon MGM Studios)

Starring: Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Annabelle Wallis, Kylie Rogers, Kali Reis, Chris Sullivan, Kenneth Choi, Rafi Gavron, Jeff Pierre

Director: Timur Bekmambetov

Running Time: 100 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: January 23, 2026 (Theaters)

Have Mercy? In the latest Screenlife venture from director Timur Bekmambetov, some dude played by Chris Pratt must prove his innocence vis-à-vis the murder of his wife to an AI judge embodied by Rebecca Ferguson within an hour and a half, or else he will be instantly executed. So now that I’ve seen this movie, I of course must ask the question: did it make me want to be replaced by artificial intelligence? To which I’ll answer: of course not!

But if that replacement hypothetically must happen, would I prefer that it be Rebecca Ferguson-style? Well, when you put it that way, she does at least bring something unique to the occasion. But I’d still be fighting against it, because it’s just not living up to its supposed potential. Anyway, the movie kind of abandons its Screenlife gimmick for the last ten minutes or so as it gives way to a frenetic climax, and it’s overall a pretty rollicking time at the movies.

Grade: 4 out of 5 Acts of Clemency

Thank You, ‘Malignant,’ for Being Malignant

September 11, 2021

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Malignant (CREDIT: Warner Bros. Pictures/Screenshot)

Starring: Annabelle Wallis, Maddie Hasson, George Young, Michole Briana White, Marina Mazepa, Jean Louisa Kelly, Susanna Thompson, Jake Abel, Jacqueline McKenzie, Christian Clemenson, McKenna Grace, Ingrid Bisu, Amir AboulEla

Director: James Wan

Running Time: 111 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: September 10, 2021 (Theaters and HBO Max)

I’ve never seen anything quite like Malignant. This is the type of movie that’s best to go in completely unspoiled on, so I’m going to be careful with how I choose my words. And after all, I like to keep it brief when reviewing something that’s already fully released, so I won’t say much more. But I will say this: when I heard that this movie was called “Malignant,” I wondered why it was so generic. Then I watched it and realized that it was actually the most perfect title.

One more bit before I go: one thing I like to do when reviewing is ask myself if the movie I’m reviewing makes me want to do/be the thing in the title. So… does Malignant make me want to be Malignant? Honestly, I’m tempted. I can’t deny how cool it would be. The vicarious thrills I experienced while watching were wildly energizing enough on their own. But it would probably lead to a lot of gore, and I have a history of getting lightheaded at the sight of blood, so better to keep things benevolent and benign.

Grade: 1999 Malignants

This Is a Movie Review: ‘The Mummy’ Reboot is Lifeless Except for the Rare Moments When It Embraces Its Goofy Side

June 9, 2017

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

This review was originally posted on News Cult in June 2017.

Starring: Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson, Russell Crowe

Director: Alex Kurtzman

Running Time: 110 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Getting Ur Freak On with Death

Release Date: June 9, 2017

I laughed derisively when the Universal globe logo spun around and gave way to the “Dark Universe” logo, but the joke was on me, as the best parts of this new interlocking cinematic franchise are the ones setting up its upcoming entries. More fundamentally, the reason the joke was on me was because I held out hope throughout The Mummy that something unique or especially thrilling might happen.

As far as reboots go, once again resurrecting the Egyptian tomb-dwellers is far from an outrage. This undead crew is part of the cinematic and larger cultural collective unconscious, so there is plenty of room for new generations of storytellers to add their spin. But this particular version of The Mummy is maddening because it never establishes a convincing reason for why it should exist in the first place.

There is a fairly clean setup in which the Ancient Egyptian Princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella) makes a deal with Set, the god of Death, but then is defeated and laid to rest thousands of years to become the title villain. Then Tom Cruise swoops in as low-rent Indiana Jones Nick Morton and slips open her tomb, thus unleashing the Pandora’s box of the Dark Universe. So far, so reasonable. But then the story gets bogged down in mythical mumbo-jumbo about daggers and prophecies and whatever. Universal so obviously wants to copy the success of Marvel, but it is not going to do that by following its worst habit of focusing way too much on the MacGuffins. Are there mythological nerds out there who actually care about this minutiae?

All this plot-centric gobbledygook can be forgiven if The Mummy can provide the genre thrills, but the results in that department are mostly meh. Cruise is as game as always, but the action, while competently shot and coherently edited, is not especially memorable. The one mildly saving grace comes from the stabs at horror. Boutuella’s snake-like body and shadowy face provide a canvas for some decently scary images, as her pupils split into two pairs and her corpse decomposes into a dusty pile of bones (reminiscent of the effects of drinking from the wrong grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).

Alas, that is all inconsequential, because the real purpose of The Mummy is prologue to a series of tales in which Dr. Jekyll is the de facto Nick Fury. Russell Crowe plays the good doctor with a motivation apparently split between defeating monsters or assembling them. That dichotomy is potentially interesting and fits the character, but it is a distraction from the actual movie it is in.

At the beginning of this review, I said that I was somehow excited for the rest of the Dark Universe, but mulling everything over, I should probably temper my anticipation, though I still hold out a smidgen hope. The Mummy’s conclusion indicates that the next entries might actually kick back and have more fun by giving extra screen time to characters like Morton’s partner Chris Vail, brought to screeching, howling life by Jake Johnson (New Girl fans will be confused every time he calls Cruise “Nick”). For its lead character, The Mummy could have really used with more off-kilter energy. Cruise can be edgy, but he is too straightforward to match the hysterical, almost Abbott and Costello-esque vibe that Johnson employs to intermittently resuscitate this DOA franchise to life.

The Mummy is Recommended If You Like: Tom Cruise-related schadenfreude, Jake Johnson (though you must be able to endure long stretches without him)

Grade: 2 out of 5 Decompositions