People talk about actors like Tom Cruise and Liam Neeson still doing actions films in their 50's and 60's. People talk about Samuel L. Jackson and Harrison Ford doing actions films or films requiring action like Captain Marvel (2019) and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), while in their 70's or older. People often talk in the vein of these men being too old and their action not looking believable. Yet, there are some men who make their 50's and 60's look very good, men like Byron Mann, an Asian actor who first made a name for himself 30 years ago in Street Fighter (1994). He's in his mid 50's now, but, with a very chiseled and ripped physique, as well as boyish good looks, he has absolutely no problem making his action scenes come across as very believable.
Oddly though, Byron Mann gets top billing, but he's not the real protagonist here. The real protagonist isn't even male. Robert Patrick who first hit the big screen in a splashy way as a robot in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) is technically the first person and first famous face seen in the film. It's ironic because The Terminator films were known for showing us robot-vision where we see the robot's point-of-view directly through its eyes as it scans people and identify their sex and other physical attributes. We get something similar here and the so-called robot-vision identifies the one female in the room and that female is the one who is this film's real protagonist.
Helena Mattsson plays Jane, a self-described office drone who mainly pushes papers but who occasionally goes on business trips to either different states or countries. Her specific job or career field isn't identified. Yet, she's a beautiful blonde who's first seen in a gorgeous red dress, looking like a knock-out. When she appears, it's not clear that she is going to be anything more than a supporting character here, a sounding board for Byron Mann's character of John. Initially, she just doesn't seem like she's going to be that important, especially since she isn't first introduced until 20 minutes into the narrative, which is about a third of the way through this film's running time.
Director and co-writer Michael Winnick has done a half-dozen or so features. He's also made a couple of them with Mattsson, and in his defense, the last feature Winnick did with him, Code of Honor (2016), didn't introduce her until about 20 minutes into that one. It simply could be a style or tactic for Winnick to misdirect the audience into following one character and then switch up to another. Winnick's dialogue between Mann and Mattsson's characters certainly lays the groundwork for that later misdirection. It's clever in retrospect but in the moment felt like an obvious shell game where one is clearly waiting for a reveal or some kind of prestidigitation, which again feels almost inevitable.
When the reveal finally does happen about a hour into the film, to Winnick's credit, it's a very clever idea. Yet, it almost comes too late. It could therefore be a pacing problem with Winnick's film because he then really has no time to develop that clever idea further. The framing device is that of a man named John sitting down in an expensive restaurant telling a story to a woman named Jane. Though flirtatious, it's obvious that John is not there for a romantic rendezvous. He's there for a specific reason. Once we get more of a clue as to what that specific reason is, as well as what this film is really doing, the film becomes vastly more interesting and engaging. Again, the problem is that it comes with about a half-hour or 20 minutes left in the running time. At that point, the film is wrapping things up when more time exploring this hidden premise would have been preferable, especially on an emotional level. The film's flaw is that it's mainly plot-driven and plot-heavy, as most of Mann's dialogue is expository.
Without spoiling what the reveal or hidden premise is, a fair thing to say is that this film is basically a gender-swapped version of The Bourne Identity (2002), or a version of that film's TV spinoff, Treadstone (2019). One could say that there is a dash of Suicide Squad (2016) thrown in there. A dash of those things is exactly the issue. Winnick skims the surface of those things but never dives too deep into them or he simply didn't have the time. Yet, in addition to Mann and Mattsson's characters, a series of others, mainly women, is also introduced. There's about three or four other characters, but Winnick rather skims over them as well.
Rated R for violence.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 30 mins.
In select theaters and VOD on September 22.