Starring Antonio Banderas, Kate Bosworth, Mojean Aria
By Roger Crow
Not to be confused with the namesake Dirty Harry movie from the 1970s, this stylish thriller feels like a mash-up of Fast and the Furious and Taken, if they were ghost-directed by Michael Mann during his Collateral era.
Commercial and short film director Richard Hughes clearly knows how to craft beautiful scenes, but sustaining the interest over a few minutes is obviously rather different to a feature. Thankfully he has Antonio Banderas on side, who elevates every scene he’s in.
He plays ageing mob hitman Cuda, who turns against his femme-fatale boss and sacrifices everything to rescue a young run away from the very organisation he has dedicated his life to building.
The Miami backdrops are often terrific, but that’s a given. What’s less terrific is W Peter Ilif’s screenplay, which ticks over but fails to really inspire. WPI was one of the writers of the Point Break remake, though ‘Pointless’ Break might have been more apt.
Having just binged most of Breaking Bad in a few days, anything that doesn’t come up to those levels of brilliance sticks out like a blood-soaked thumb. This isn’t as bad as some similar straight-to-VOD movies, but it’s not breaking new ground either.
An interesting inclusion on the (mostly awful) soundtrack is the Korgis’ Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime. It feels like one of those retro songs kids discover on TikTok who rave about it to their grandparents like it’s brand new.
Banderas aside, the generic supporting cast fail to breathe new life into humdrum material.
Let’s hope Antonio’s next major movie (in which he’s not lending his vocals to an animated cat) is a lot more on the money: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, partly shot in Yorkshire, opens in the summer, and there’s a good chance that will do better business
Cast 7
Script 5
Cinematography 8
Score 5
Rewatchability 3
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