Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse
Director: Stefano Sollima
Writer: Taylor Sheridan (this guy wrote Sicario, Wind River, and Hell or High Water; he can write whatever he wants for the rest of his life and I’ll watch it), Will Staples, and Tom Clancy
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Jodie Turner-Smith, Jamie Bell, Guy Pearce, Lauren London
Reason for watching: new release
Number of times I’ve watched it: first time viewing
***
I can’t understand why people can’t just watch and enjoy an action movie. All you gotta do is turn off your brain and have a good time. Jeez, people. It has Michael B. Jordan in it! He beats up some people. He acts cool as hell. What more do you need? He has abs and can act. Lower your expectations and have fun. But then again maybe we shouldn’t.
John Kelly (Michael B. Jordan) is a Navy SEAL. When he gets home from a mission that didn’t go according to plan, his home is invaded and his pregnant wife is killed mistakenly. One of the home invaders escapes, and Kelly sets out on a journey of vengeance. As he fights his way up the ladder to find the conspiracy that’s waiting for him, twists and turns show up that frankly turns me off from the movie, but again I didn’t come here to be wowed by storytelling. I wanted to see Michael B. Jordan beat some people up. And that’s what I got.
There’s plenty of set pieces to get excited about too. The aforementioned fight in his home, a brawl in his cell, swimming around in a crashed plane, and fighting off a foreign country’s police force. The cinematography during these scenes is high quality. There aren’t any jump-cuts; there’s a lot of consistent and long takes that keep you focused on the action. While brutal, the violence isn’t so gory that it breaches on Quentin Tarantino territory. The final act is almost entirely about that fight between Kelly and a team of other SEALs facing a foreign police force. Tension builds throughout the entire scene as the US soldiers try to escape and Kelly eventually decides to hold off the entire foreign force while his team escapes. What’s interesting to me though is how obvious it is that the cell block scene was used for the advertisements and you know why. Shirtless Michael B. Jordan takes on three armored guards by himself in a flooded cell. It’s something to watch for sure.
Here’s the problem: an action movie needs a good reason for the action to happen. Someone killed John Wick’s puppy. Jason Bourne doesn’t know who he is. Tom Cruise has to keep doing stuff so we all forget he’s insane. It’s not that I don’t understand John Kelly’s pursuit of vengeance for his wife, but I don’t understand the significance behind all of this happening. SPOILER ALERT: Kelly finds out his superior is the reason the hit was ordered on him. But for the life of me, I have no idea why. Does the movie explain it at some point? Yes. Apparently, he wants to start a war with Russia so we can get back to the times when Americans were unified by their fear of another country. For the life of me, this makes no sense why this trope keeps getting used. One huge cliche of big action movies is that the suits and the officials are all schemers who are drunk on power. It’s needlessly complicated. Action movies do not need to have complicated villains for them to be enjoyable; especially if you’re just making it to make a quick buck or get some more viewers or subscribers. Netflix gets it and that’s why they made Extraction, so Chris Hemsworth could throw some muscle around and save a kid. HBO Max and Warner Bros get it, that’s why they made Mortal Kombat so we can watch one fighter explode another fighter’s head by clapping on it while keeping the underworld at bay. And Amazon can get it too, but all you have to do is remove the needless complication and you’ll have a decent movie on your hand.
5/10
Until I see another one