Viola Davis might be in her action or blockbuster phase. A lot of actors have such a phase. Some maintain it for their whole career like Tom Cruise. Some don't. Some ride waves where they dip in and out. Davis is going the way of Liam Neeson who started doing action flicks, leading them in his 50's and 60's. Davis is in her late 50's and she's done several actions films. In some, she's merely lent her gravitas as in Suicide Squad (2016) or The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023). However, she's starting to get the lead in big-budget projects like The Woman King (2022), which was directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, a filmmaker she'll team up with again for another actioner. In the meantime, Davis teams up with Patricia Riggins, a Mexican director. Unfortunately, The Woman King set a high bar. Not only did it have intense and really immersive fight choreography, it felt wholly original, telling a story about a people and situation that hadn't been put to screen in this way before. Riggins' film isn't that original. It's basically Die Hard (1988), which was about terrorists who take over a building and a lone cop who has to stop them by himself.
Riggins' production has the same basic premise. Simply replace the building with the G20 Summit and replace the lone cop with the President of the United States, here played by Viola Davis. The real difference is that the President is a Black woman. In Die Hard, the terrorists had no clue that the lone cop was in the building, not until after the siege. In this film, the terrorists do know the President is there before the siege. In fact, the reason they're taking siege is because of her presence. Bruce Willis' character in Die Hard wasn't the target. Here, the target is Davis' character of President Danielle Sutton. As such, the script makes their scheme a bit convoluted, as the narrative has to twist itself into a pretzel to make the terrorists like in Die Hard ultimately after money but also with some kind of vendetta against the President.
Anthony Anderson (Law & Order and Black-ish) co-stars as Derek Sutton, a military doctor and the husband to Danielle, and father to her two children. There is a lot that could have been explored here in terms of having not only a female, Black President, but with her husband who becomes the de facto "First Lady" or "First Gentleman." There are a lot of issues that could have been explored about his role in Danielle's administration and his public perception and how that has or has not affected how Black men are perceived. Yet, this film doesn't go there. In Die Hard, the protagonist had someone that he cared about in danger at the hands of the terrorists. The film tries to give Derek something to do, so that he's not just a hostage, but not too much as to overshadow Danielle because at the end of the day this is Viola Davis' vehicle.
Yet, overshadowing her is exactly what this film does for the initial action scenes. Regardless, the screenplay had an opportunity to have an action film from the perspective of a wife and mother. We get a little of that in the beginning to set it up, but the nature of the plot separates Danielle from Derek, as well as her children. Because they have no scenes together, it's difficult to develop that chemistry or on-screen bond. Marsai Martin (Little and Black-ish) plays Serena Sutton, the daughter of Danielle and Derek. The film sets up a conflict between her and her mother. Yet, as the action occurs, they're separated, so developing that relationship and resolving that conflict become difficult as well and the power and pathos that could've come out of it gets lost.
It would be a different story if the action were more engaging or even more intricate and over-the-top. It would also be different if the action were more centered on Danielle. She gets rather sidelined in her own narrative. Ramón Rodríguez (Will Trent and The Wire) plays Secret Service Agent, Manny Ruiz, the bodyguard to the President. He basically overshadows Danielle, taking the action hero role that Danielle is supposed to have. There seems to be an angle that Danielle doubts her status as a hero, so having her play second fiddle to Manny could be understandable, but it diminishes the fun that could have been had with Danielle.
Antony Starr (The Boys and Banshee) rounds out the cast as Corporal Edward Rutledge, an Australian Special Forces member who is brought on to be the security for the G20 Summit. It doesn't take long to reveal that he's the Hans Gruber of this situation. He's the terrorist who takes the G20 attendees hostage and hunts down Danielle, as he needs her to execute his plan to mess with the world's economy. However, his pursuit of her is also fueled by a need for revenge for an incident in both of their pasts. The incident goes to the idea of who should be venerated and why, as well as who is worthy of positions of power and who isn't. The script could've done more with this idea. There is a thread there, but it still feels tacked onto the end when President Sutton and Rutledge inevitably meet and have their showdown, which like Die Hard takes place on the roof and involves a helicopter.
Rated R for violence.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 40 mins.
Available on Amazon Prime Video.