It’s been 16 years of replicas since the release of the 2008 movie, Taken which was directed by Pierre Morel. And many of them have been thanks to the Simon Says style of ‘writing’ for lack of a better term that has become the calling card of ‘writer’ Luc Besson. All along, the man has also been stuck in the rut of more of the same; first taken was Liam Nelson based to Morel in 2008 who followed that then with a John Travolta headed From Paris With Love two years later in 2010. Sean Penn was sent to gunman in 2015 and didn’t even look back when he did same with Jennifer Garner in 2018’s Peppermint. The films haven’t been completely dull. Actually, most of them have actually turned out to be quite enjoyable run of the mill action films where it was interesting to see relatively popular actors in different genres (at least at that time in their careers).
In 2023 however, Morel changed his position just a little, accepting the directing role for the action-comedy Freelance, knowing well it was a cut out for Amazon film because of the production company contracts, and joining forces with John Cena, who is neither a stranger to the action world nor missing in action. Between trying to balance a comedy with a reputable action star who was taking on a light performing role, Morel fumbled the task and could hardly produce anything astonishing to watch. Now, just a year later, he is back working for Amazon in full force and this time, he is collaborating with Kate Beckinsale, who is also not a stranger to action nor is she much out of the game, though, many after this might wish that she will be.
Kate Beckinsale, the British actress is popularly known for kicking butt in the ‘underworld’ and for donning PVC outfits with guns. However for the nature of work that she was doing, it’s not a surprise that action genre is where her attention lies. After portraying the role of Selene in Underworld, it became impossible to put her front and center in anything else for audiences. And that is such a pity because as a matter of fact she performed magnificently in what is considered a Martin Scorsese’s nasty and poorly received picture. Sadly, like many Hollywood professionals today, Beckinsale’s experience with streaming films has proved detrimental to what was otherwise a promising career for her.
What about her previous film which was produced by Amazon? It was Jolt which was a poorly executed imitation of what Jason Statham did best in Crank. But hey, she is back on Amazon Prime again for Canary Black. Would this however be the same? The character of Black Canary had many interesting stories to tell, however dozens of poor retellings have dulled the material. It becomes quite pathetic material that does not even ponder attempting to be interesting at times, the same material in Taken and Peppermint.
Kate Beckinsale takes on the role of the well known CIA agent Avery Graves, which is regarded as the best agent. She is so skilled that her superiors have allowed her to wear high heels even during covert mission operations that involve taking someone out. She’s so great, she can grotesquely screw up her most recent task, stealthily creeping into a hostile stronghold without raising anyone’s suspicions, only to accidentally start a fire fight, working her way through smacking the target and still returning back to the agency with an award. She is so impressive that when she arrives home to her only got no sense of humor husband, Rupert Friend, she does not even make fun of his silly voice but instead buys him a pair of Japan pants. But when her husband gets abducted a certain kind of skill has to be utilized, a skill set that is so very defining of this genre no. Scratch that. That does not belong here.
Upon the kidnapping of her husband, she holds a confidential ‘Canary Black” blackmail indices tape where McGuffins can louse up spies internationally taking her on the premises of choosing her own bosses, and risking her life in the process. So far, so Taken meets Mission Impossible III in plot. If only this were half as chaotic fun lowbrow mash up of that two in the vein of Burke.
The singular failure of great Canaries Black is not even Beckinsale. It is not the lack of creative action set pieces though gosh, every single set piece is so dreary. It is not even Morel’s action direction that is competent but boring, bland and routine. It’s the only thing that will kill it and that is not managing to combine two potentially driving premise ideas into a film that even in the slightest organizes into something resembling a moving picture. An actioner would work even if it’s generic. But a monotonous actioner? That’s pretty hard to forgive.
The film’s opening sequence takes on a bizarre twist, if only to make Beckinsale wear a blonde wig and create an inexplicable connection with Amazon’s last movie, Jolt, in the process, as can be seen in the promotional materials. Yet the actual beginning of the film has already wounded people when Beckinsale’s dislikeable partner Friend has no chemistry with her. Unfortunately, the filmmakers also plan to threaten this character for the entire runtime in order to ensure the audience cares about nothing. When this should have been the easy part of the film when the Canaries have been captured (which Morel defined as taken), the film decides to piddle around attempting to inject a non linear edit depicting infighting with the CIA, and pulling off an equally pointless middle sequence where it seems to everyone, including the audience, that Loren’s character already possesses the list. Why? It really is hard to believe that such a mid section distraction is happening as people have invested so much time in For a Middle Section Gambit.
The people aim guns at each other because it is too much fun, while others enjoy bashing cars for no specific reason. Even the late Ray Stevenson valiantly attempts to save what’s left of his dignity as the rest of the movie unfolds in chaos. Even Beckinsale seems to be lost in her own character, with no idea of any of the motivations within the movie and her kidnapped husband, which by the end of the movie, you are just left feeling like there were two different stories playing simultaneously. And both were awful.
Beckinsale herself is at the lower end of her scale where any action seemingly convincing abilities are concerned. While the Underworld saga conveniently offered her the excuse of being an invincible superhuman, Canary Black has no such plot device for the audience to begin believing what they see, and she is not even convincing while shooting her way through her enemies making the hand to hand combat disintegrate into incoherent chaos. Okay, the heels don’t help but it’s not her short height or small body structure, it’s simply the fact that she does not even remotely seem to have a single good technique that would get her anywhere against all these much larger opponents (c.f the Indonesian female fronted Shadow Strays). And this is also partly the fault of the director, since morel was able to portray, until then, non action, older, nelson in such a magnificent way it has enabled a fifteen year career as an action movie star until now at seventy two he seems to be contemplating how he might have aged out of the action star role finally. The same was done with Garner who probably had some novice action in alias but seem to have been out of the genre for over a decade until she joined the surprisingly gritty Peppermint.
Unfortunately, there are no redeeming features here because, even at the base level, a lowbrow film needs to at least be interesting (even in an unintentional sense) to even come close to being ‘so bad it’s good’ (see Barb Wire). This is simply insipid, which would be a compliment but somehow manages to be consistently insipid. Morel deserves points for not being associated with the Grenadar(TM) outrageousness of Taken 2 but now he has the audacity to claim for something almost as absurd. Baseball Bouncing Betty. It’s a pity if the film has just been this moronic on every scene now it would be a good candidate for a good old drink and watch. But it is not. Do not recommend.
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