A battle-scarred War on Terror bounty hunter is forced to go to London on a manhunt for a disavowed CIA operative, which leads him into a deadly running battle with a former military comrade and his private army.
I was curious to see this movie as I am a huge Mel Gibson fan and wanted to see if his natural gift for acting was passed along to his son, Milo Gibson, who stars in this uninspiring, conventional trite. Sadly, the answer is no. I saw Milo Gibson in “Hacksaw Ridge” and “Gangster Land” but they were more ensemble pieces so as part of a larger group of actors, he was fine but with this film being his first major starring role, he proves that he while he may carry his famous father’s surname and bright blue eyes, that’s about all he embodies.
Here, he stars as Collins, a former Marine and bounty hunter who is assigned the task of capturing a former CIA operative, McKnight (Elliot Cowan), who has gone rogue. He is paired up with his old partner Brennan (William Fichtner) and Samuelson (Gbenga Akinnagbe), led by their boss, Leigh (Sylvia Hoeks). Their mission takes them from Morocco to England and when Collins is given a list of bad guys operating in the London area who might have possible ties with McKnight, he recognizes one of them, Deighton (Joseph Millson), as an old friend and Marine he saved in Iraq years earlier. He tells Leigh that Deighton is not a bad guy and asks for the opportunity to meet with him to find out what’s going on. She agrees but after a brief meeting, Deighton turns on them and in the process, kills Brennan and manages to escape. Now Collins and Samuelson must track him down, extract information from him as to the whereabouts of McKnight, and try to prevent a war with McKnight’s private army from spilling out onto the streets of London.
While the movie is satisfactorily shot, the overall narrative is tedious and unimaginative. Milo Gibson lacks his father’s ability to emote naturally and while he is more than capable of performing the physical traits required of an action film, his inexperience with acting is what comes across most. It’s not easy for an actor to have to follow in their famous father’s footsteps but Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, and Scott Eastwood have proven that it can be done and that over time, they can even carve out a niche for themselves. The always reliable William Fichtner is wasted here in a role that amounts to nothing more than a glorified cameo and Sylvia Hoeks, who was last seen as the bad guy in “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” and “Blade Runner 2049,” like Fichtner, is sorely underutilized in a role that could have been played by anybody. This is being billed as Milo Gibson’s first starring role and while he may very well be labeled so, unfortunately, it appears he only attained that moniker because of his famous last name, not his ability to put bums on seats.
Available on Blu-ray™ (plus Digital), DVD, and Digital February 5th
