A gang of thieves plan a heist during a hurricane and encounter trouble when a cop tries to force everyone in the building to evacuate.
Mel Gibson has long been a favorite actor-director of mine. The “Lethal Weapon” series is perfect in its pairing of Gibson and Danny Glover as cops and best friends and the Mad Max films were simply groundbreaking for their time. That is why I was quite surprised when I saw the trailer for “Force of Nature,” a direct-to-video movie that seemed an odd choice for Gibson. Then I learned that he replaced Bruce Willis at the last minute and realized maybe it was a professional courtesy for a producer on the film or maybe a favor for the director. Either way, the movie is by-the-numbers but is elevated above its conventional thriller tropes whenever Gibson appears onscreen, which sadly, is not very often.
Emile Hirsch plays Cardillo, a cop who lives in Puerto Rico who is set up with a new partner, Jess (Stephanie Cayo), the day a violent category 5 hurricane hits the territory. After the city has been evacuated, Cardillo and Jess set out to rescue anybody left behind. When they search an apartment complex and discover Troy (Kate Bosworth), a doctor who is in her father Ray’s (Mel Gibson) apartment and is trying to get him to leave with her to go to the nearest hospital because of his failing health, he steadfastly refuses. He wants to protect his apartment against any would-be looters. When a gang of murderous thieves arrives on the scene having just learned that there is priceless art in one of the tenant’s apartments, they begin to search each apartment, one by one and kill anybody who gets in their way. As the gang slowly makes their way upstairs, heading directly for Ray’s floor, the ex-cop, along with Cardillo, Jess, and his daughter Troy, must formulate a plan to outsmart the thieves before they reach his door.
There is absolutely nothing original about “Force of Nature,” basically, it is “Die Hard” in an apartment complex, filled with conventional bad guys and a totally unimaginative script. Both Emile Hirsch and Kate Bosworth sleepwalk their way through the entire film, showing a complete lack of interest in anyone or anything going on around them. I guess their paycheck was their sole motivating factor for even agreeing to do the movie. Mel Gibson is advertised as one of the stars but in reality, he is a supporting character who only has about twenty minutes of screen time but whenever he does appear, he lights up the screen and one wishes he had been cast in the lead role of Castillo instead of Emile Hirsch, then “Force of Nature” would have made a far more interesting film. Once the action starts and Gibson gets going, you can see elements of Martin Riggs, unfortunately, they are just sporadic bursts and leave you wanting more. In the end, “Force of Nature” offers nothing new to the action-thriller genre but if you are a Mel Gibson fan, it’s worth checking out for his brief performance alone.
Available on Blu-ray™ (plus Digital), DVD, Digital & On-Demand June 30th
