Criminal

Have I mentioned before that Hollywood has a fascination with espionage films? I thought so. I suppose what makes "Criminal" a bit different than the rest of its counterparts is the implausible premise in which this production is based. I don't mean this in a negative way, but to emphasize this is not your typical spy flick we've all come to love.

Bill Pope (Ryan Reynolds) is a CIA agent on a mission in Germany tracking down a shadowy hacker, Jan Stroop aka "The Dutchman" (Michael Pitt). When he gets mysteriously ambushed, tortured and killed, an experimental procedure invented by Dr. Franks (Tommy Lee Jones) and headed up by CIA agent Quaker Wells (Gary Oldman) is used to transfer his memories into a dangerous ex-convict Jericho Stewart (Kevin Costner). When he wakes up with the CIA agent's memories, his mission is to find The Dutchman and eliminate him before the hacker launches ICBM's and starts World War III. But complications soon arise and the mission turns personal.

Others to round out the cast are Jordi Molla as Xavier Heimdahl, Gal Gadot as Jill Pope, Bill's wife, Amaury Nolasco as Esteban Ruiza, Alice Eve as Marta Lynch, Antje Traue as Elsa Mueller, Scott Adkins as Pete Greensleeves and Lara Decaro as Emma Pope, Bill and Jill's daughter.

This was intensely directed by Ariel Vromen ("Rx" '05, "Danika" '06, "The Iceman" '12). While this filmmaker doesn't have a ton of experience in that director's chair, he was able to pace and stage his actors with just the right amount of emotion, especially that of Costner-- someone coming from an extremely volatile world to slowly obtaining these memories of a guy with a family, and a guy who cared about others, while this convict has no remorse, no empathy, no feelings. Costner pulled this off well, and this has so much to do with the direction. It was effectively written by writing team, Douglas Cook and David Weisberg. These guys do have a fair amount of experience, however in writing this, it took an unreasonably long time to find itself, but then once it got going it simply soared. We won't see how these guys, as a team, will do next time around considering this was Douglas Cook's last film since he has paced away. There were a few areas of inconsistencies and slowness, but once it built up to that crucial part of the script, it showcased itself well. What actually saved this film was the performance by Costner. This guy must have gone through a reinvention of himself, because he has chosen many good meaty roles of recent past which has showcased his true potential. Another actor that has gone through a similar transformation is that of Matthew McConaughey. He too, went from making a string of stinkers to demanding more roles that can and has showcased what he can do. Sometimes actors need to reassess, and in the case of Costner, I think he's done just that. Kudos to him!

If you're in love with espionage films, surely you'll be right at home with this one. But with this having that needed implausible twist in transplanting memories from a deceased man to that of a living one in order to catch a potential terrorist, this makes it that much more fun. Yes, there's some choppiness and some slowness to this, but it does keep your attention to wonder what will happen next.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                Rated: R                                    113mins.