Movie Review: Mutiny

Jason Statham is the last action star of his ilk still standing. All of his former peers (Stallone Schwarnzegger, Wesley Snipes) have aged out of ass-kicking mode and unlike when he first ventured down this career path with The Transporter 24 years ago, there's no pipeline of younger stars who show up on the big screen twice a year to crack the skulls of various goons set to take the mantle from him when he steps aside. As Statham just turned 59, it's hard to imagine that retirement isn't on the horizon for him. With this mind, I'm going to cherish every moment of Statham's final act as an action star, and his latest Mutiny is no exception. 

As the specifics of the plot are pretty much interchangeable at this point, what really differentiates Statham movies from each other is the tone. Mutiny isn't as stoic as his last effort Shelter or as off-the-wall as The Beekeeper, instead operating in something that resembles a middle ground where its revenge plot is played straight but has a playful streak that becomes pronounced in the final act when the action really picks up. It's a fitting tonal choice for a movie that doesn't waste its time focusing on any plot threads or character motivations that don't directly impact the action that people showed up to see.

Speaking of the action, it sufficiently pops. While its confined container ship setting and much of the plot revolving around a shipping vessel that's being secretly used for human trafficking trying to locate Statham and the one crew member (Annabelle Wallis) who wasn't privy to their operation leads to frequent pauses in the actual combat, director Jean-François-Richet (Plane) steps up big time when it's time for the bodies to start dropping. The close-quarters fighting is really precise and bone crunching and there are some fun moments where Statham reassembles a slasher villain stalking his prey before dispatching in them a brutal manner without them even knowing he was ever there. On top of this, Statham gets to deliver a badass walkoff line before the credits roll that had me grinning on the way out of the theater. In a world where consistency is hard to find, the reliability of Statham is something that I will always admire and it deserves to be remembered as a huge part of his legacy whenever Father Time declares that he's put his last fire axe through the head of a henchman. 

Grade: B