WHAT’S IT ABOUT

Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa play two estranged half-brothers who reunite after the mysterious and sudden death of their father. Together, they hit the streets of Hawaii to uncover what really happened to their dad and to work out their own emotional baggage.

MOVIESinMO REVIEW

But let me be real with you. Going into *The Wrecking Crew*, I wanted it to be good. Amazon Prime Video threw this one at us with two of the biggest action stars in the world right now, Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa. On paper, this one has it all. Two charismatic leads in Hawaii in an R-rated action film about blood, family, and revenge. What could go wrong? Well, it turns out quite a lot, and it all comes down to the film not knowing what kind of film it wants to be. The film opens with Walter Hale, the father of our leads, getting hit by a van in Honolulu after dropping off a mysterious package at a mailbox. His death notifies his older son James (Bautista), a former Navy SEAL who has built a quiet and steady life in Hawaii with his wife Leila and their two kids. James is the responsible one. The house is spotless, he cooks dinner, and leads his men in training exercises. But when he gets word of his father’s death, he shrugs it off. His relationship with his father had been nonexistent for years. But when Yakuza thugs show up at his door asking him to hand over the package Walter sent him, James knows his father’s death wasn’t random. It was planned. And this means he has to contact his half-brother Jonny (Momoa), a reservation cop in Oklahoma who is currently suspended from duty and has his personal life falling apart.  Fox holds her own alongside Bautista, a feat not easy to accomplish. Their on-screen chemistry appears to be quite genuine, and she brings an emotional depth to the film that helps ground the entire thing. Her performance is one of the best things that The Wrecking Crew has going for it. Now, this is where things begin to fall apart. The second this film starts to focus on the villains and the action, it loses what made it worthwhile to begin with. Claes Bang portrays the main villain, a businessman by the name of Robichaux, and he completely overplays this role. He gives every line like he’s trying to ensure that the people at the back of the theater can hear him. The character itself is predictable, the connection he has to the film feels forced, and the entirety of this character’s purpose was to bring the brothers back together, which this film did not even need to do to begin with. The action is where The Wrecking Crew falls the hardest. While it starts off quite creative and fun, like the bathroom fight to an Air Supply tune, it eventually descends into explosions, car chases, and gunfights that have nothing to do with what’s been going on previously. There are several moments where the brothers dodge machine gun fire, which makes no sense whatsoever. A helicopter attacks a highway, causing massive destruction, and the film does nothing to acknowledge the fact that innocent people are dying all around them. These are supposed to be men who serve and protect people. The film does not appear to care about this at all. The CGI and other effects also do the film a disservice. Some of the larger scenes appear rushed, as if they were not given enough time or money to be completed correctly. A chase scene on a highway at the end of the film is a good example of this, as it pulls the viewer immediately out of the story. The biggest problem with The Wrecking Crew, however, is that the pieces were all there to make a film that is genuinely enjoyable. The cast is charming, the setting is beautiful, and the family conflict at the heart of the story provides real stakes for the characters. Rather than embracing these strengths, however, the film continues to escalate into louder, more chaotic action scenes that do not have an emotional payoff. It trades on emotion for chaos, and in doing so, loses what made the film worth caring about in the first place. The Wrecking Crew is not a bad film, however. It is a film that knows exactly what makes a good film, but refuses to stay within those boundaries. If you go into The Wrecking Crew expecting a tight, character-driven thriller with great performances, then yes, you will be able to find those pieces of a film buried beneath the chaos. Whether or not those pieces are enough for you to continue watching, however, is left up to the reader.

OUR RATING – A BASIC 5