After 3 Days to Kill and now this movie, maybe Kevin Costner is trying to relaunch his career as an ageing action hero in the Liam Neeson mould. From the evidence so far it seems to be working, though he does really need to find some better material.
In Criminal, he plays Jericho Stewart, a jailed violent criminal. He suffered a brain injury as a young man and that makes him the perfect choice to have the memory of a recently killed CIA operative, Bill Pope (Ryan Reynolds) implanted into his brain. That is needed because only Pope knew of the whereabouts of a super-hacker, The Dutchman, who is about to supply his services to the Russians.
If that plot sounds convoluted and preposterous, that’s because it is!! In fact, it gets more so as the story progresses. I think that we are meant to root for Jericho as he races to save the life of Pope’s widow and child, but as he kills many more innocent people in the progress, you might find yourself hoping he is stopped. The plot holes are significant – a nuclear missile is exploded but no one suffers from radiation issues – and the action scenes are poorly directed by Ariel Vromen.
However, the performance of Costner and that of Antje Traue as one of the Dutchman’s crew keep this just about watchable.
Rating: 4.5 out of 10