Director: Gareth Evans
Starring: Tom Hardy, Forest Whitaker, Luis Guzman, Timothy Olyphant
Running Time: 107 minutes
Synopsis: Corrupt cop Walker (Tom Hardy) investigates a massacre at the drug den of master criminal Tsui. Prime suspects and drug thieves Charlie (Justin Cronwell) and Mia (Quelin Sepulveda) are on the run, although Walker concludes they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Charlie is the son of real estate tycoon and mayoral candidate Lawrence (Forest Whitaker), who pays Walker to make scandals go away. With inexperienced cop Ellie (Jessica Mei Li) as his only ally, Walker has to find Charlie and Mia and keep them safe from a group of violent corrupt cops led by Vincent (Timothy Olyphant), and an army of goons assembled by Tsui's vengeful mother.
What Works Well: This is an over-the-top, wildly entertaining action thriller. In extended and often chaotic scenes of balletic violence, countless bullets fly, gallons of blood spurt from gaping wounds, and hordes of bad guys (and girls) are mowed down in cartoonish but artistic displays of excess. Director and writer Gareth Evans squeezes into less than two hours a complicated pursuit story with a rich set of characters but hardly any good people, just shades of bad ranging from dubious to despicable. Tom Hardy's Walker looks (and probably smells like) snail excrement, and yet he's the best hope to save the few souls worth salvaging.
What Does Not Work As Well: This is unrestrained narrative terrain devoid of most logic or common sense, and all the violence is ultimately numbing.
Key Quote:
Walker (narrating): You live in this world, you make choices. Choices you try to justify. For yourself, for your family. And for a while it works. Until it doesn't. Until you make a choice that renders everything worthless.
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