Directed by: Ariel Vromen
Starring: Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Gal Gadot, Ryan Reynolds, Michael Pitt, Alice Eve, Jordi Molla
This is the second movie within a year in which Ryan Reynolds is involved in a thought or brain switching experiment. The other was self/less (2015), in which Ben Kingsley's soul or consciousness (I'm not even sure what) was transferred to Reynolds. Now, Reynolds, as a slain FBI agent, pays it forward by having his consciousness transferred to psychotic criminal Jericho Stewart (Costner) in Criminal. The whole thought transfer thingy isn't even the most ridiculous part of the movie, if you can believe that.
As Criminal opens, FBI agent Bill Pope (Reynolds) is on the trail of The Dutchman (Pitt), a computer geek who is selling a program which could cripple the world's governments to the highest bidder, Pope makes a deal with The Dutchman to pay him for the program and give him a new identity, thus keeping it out of the hands of evildoers like Heimbahl (Molla), who openly calls for the toppling of governments in TV interviews. Doesn't he think he would be the first suspect if a government goes down?
Pope is killed before he can complete the deal and The Dutchman is still in hiding, so his frothing, upset boss Quaker Wells (Oldman) authorizes a secret government experiment in which Pope's memories can be transferred to Stewart's brain. Stewart is a piece of work. According to reports, he suffered a frontal lobe injury in childhood and feels nothing emotionally. With that being said, he spends the first part of the movie agitated and upset. Those are emotions, last I checked. Maybe saying Stewart is an amoral psychopath is enough. The rest is unnecessary overselling.
The surgery is performed by Dr. Franks (Jones), whose face wears a forlorn expression throughout the entire movie. I get the feeling Jones would have rather had the surgery performed on him than appear in this movie, but since he showed up he may as well pretend to have a good time. Stewart is the violent, malicious Stewart for a while, but soon Pope's memories begin to take over, and he remembers Pope's wife Jill (Gadot) and young daughter. For the first time, Stewart experiences emotions of love and caring, all the while trying to find the Dutchman and prevent a world disaster.
Stewart leaves a trail of bodies in his wake, including those of law enforcement and innocents (while he's being Stewart and not Pope). All is forgiven apparently as Stewart thwarts the bad guys and learns to be a human being because the cruel deaths and injuries at his hands are forgotten. Pope himself is quickly forgotten also because, as far as I can tell, there is no funeral for him and Pope's family seems to forget his death quickly once Stewart arrives on the scene. Their primary function is to become hostages for the bad guys at a critical point.
Costner is game for the role, but isn't given much of a character to play. Most of his dialogue is monosyllabic, with a lot of grunts and screams peppered in. He sure isn't paid by the word. There is really nothing about Stewart which inspires our sympathy. When he's violent, he's really, really violent and the body count rises. Then, on a dime, he switches to the kinder, gentler Stewart/Pope, but we just can't buy it. Gary Oldman falls back on hysterical overacting in a lot of his scenes. He spends the bulk of his time being angry, throwing things around, and barking orders at people. Doesn't the job description of a leader of a major FBI assignment require a cool head and some sort of tact? And what kind of name is Quaker Wells?
Then again, there are the names Quaker, Jericho, and Pope in this movie, so is there some sort of religious link to all of this confusing lunacy? I don't know if it was intended and it is likely not even relevant. I think the movie further confirms the unfortunate luck of Ryan Reynolds, who has a knack for appearing in mostly bad movies. With a few exceptions, Kevin Costner has followed in those footsteps lately.
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