Criminal
Dir: Ariel Vromen
2016
**
I loved Ariel Vromen's 2013
thriller The
Iceman and had hoped for a film just as good as it, but as much
as Vromen isn't the only one to blame, he has let himself down here
somewhat in my opinion. Maybe it was because most of the action happened in the
most unglamorous of places such as Croydon and Kingston
(two miserable towns surrounding London that I was constantly dragged
to during my childhood), maybe it was the blue/green tint, wobbly camera and
uninteresting visuals but throughout the film I felt unstimulated and
unconvinced. The idea is nonsensical sci-fi, I loved it but I don't think it
was explored particularly well nor did it reach its full potential.
We're told that serial criminal Jericho Stewart (played by Kevin Costner) is
the perfect candidate for a new radical memory transplant due to his damaged
frontal lobe. It is said to be the reason he turned to crime in the first place
as that childhood injury that caused the damage effected his emotional
development and control of his own impulse. He basically can't help himself,
has zero empathy or morals. I buy it. The idea that you can transmit the
memories of a dead man into the living through 'electric impulses' I found a
little less believable but not something I couldn't go along with.
However, Costner is utterly unconvincing as a thug who has just undergone
brain surgery, Tommy Lee Jones looks positively bored with his role
as sympathetic brain surgeon and Gary Oldman's performance
is somewhere between diet Jim Gordon and a sober Norman Stansfield. They've all
come a long way from JFK. Oldman's heart isn't in it, Costner is clearly
miscast and Tommy Lee Jones
couldn't look less enthusiastic if he tried. Cameos by Robert Davi and Colin
Salmon made me sit up and Ryan Reynolds is faultless in his small role but Gal
Godot could have been replaced with a broom and it would have made
little difference to her character and Jordi
Molla's villain is the most two dimensional bad guy I've
seen since Satan in South
Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The film reaches
'couldn't care less' territory pretty fast and doesn't come close to redeeming
itself by the time the end credits roll. The only reason Criminal might escape
the 'worst of the year' lists is because it is incredibly forgettable.
