2024, Pierre Morel (Taken) -- Amazon
Kate Beckinsale is not an "aging" action/thriller star. She is only 51. OK, sorry, maybe that is long after the age at which an actor is considered "aging" by the status quo ? Either way, she is not presented as aging -- the character could be anywhere from 35 to 45. But either she is feeling it, or she is just not skilled at the running and diving. I know that most of the key scenes are via a stunt double, but there are a few where she has to sprint down a hallway in boots-not-made-for-assassin-work and she just looks.... awkward. At least Keanu's troubled running was explained away by the fact he had just been battered against the side of a car. What I am trying to say is that if Graves is not presented as an "old" character, then maybe not having her doing the "old man run" is a good idea? Give her sensible assassin shoes to run in.
I am power-rewatching thru the Craig Bond films (Bond, Craig Bond, James's lesser known cousin) and as they start in 2006 and end with "No Time to Die" in 2021, where Craig was 53, after a career of being battered against EVERYTHING (Bond, not Craig) at least he has an excuse.
Anywayz, after a job well done she returns home to her Oblivious Hubby (Rupert Friend, Hitman: Agent 47) and talks about her business trip, and his coming business trip and their happy happy love love life. Its their anniversary and she has screwed it up with novelty undies while he got her a really cool leather short coat. She sucks at the lovey dovey stuff. And that's because her mind is always on The Job, especially the tracking down of ultra-anonymous assassin called Kali.
Anywayz, later on, after a debrief about the intel she got in Japan blah blah Kali blah blah, she comes home to find the place wrecked and her husband gone. An altered voice (why alter, unless she is expected to recognize them?) tells her they have her husband and if she wants him back alive, she has to grab a secret file hidden in the tooth of a detainee at a CIA black site. She knocks the tooth out of the guy, which sets off the alarm bells, but alas, there is no file. But now Avery is on the Naughty List.
What was the file? Something called Canary Black, something about a list of blackmail material for all the key people in the world including espionage agents and world leaders. "If it gets out...." Anywayz, Avery has to get the file or they kill her husband. And the CIA is now after her.
What follows is a chase-me, chase-me movie. Since the tooth was empty, which is never explained (or if it was, I was not engaged enough to remember), she has to find it another way. One way is beating up her boss's (Ray Stevenson, Ahsoka) boss and using his access to a Top Secret Computer in a Top Secret Building but once she has the file, she discovers (via "hacker friend" with requisite haircut) the file is not blackmail but a more appropriate spy-movie computer virus that can "take down countries". With the virus the Bad Guys can blackmail the entire world into giving them trillions of dollars/euros/whatnot. Let the chase-me continue!
At least it was not "a list" of the identities of spies around the world as per "Skyfall" but I suppose the fake-out had it as a list.
Its not a "bad" movie, but neither is it a very "good" movie, more stock n trade for Straight To Streaming. Beckinsale will always look good in right leather and it was nice to see the last movie of Ray Stevenson. It tosses in a minor twist for good measure and it does present a nice romp around Eastern Europe for good measure. If I was ever to "rank" my Women with Guns tag, it would be around the middle of the lot, and its most definitely not going to be Morel's new Taken.
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