CRIMINAL – Rated R

CRIMINAL – Rated R

Starring Kevin Costner, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Oldman

CIA Operative Bill Pope (Ryan Reynolds) finds himself on the wrong side of his case, making his life quickly expendable.

In desperate need to find out what Pope knew before his death, CIA Front man Quaker Wells (Gary Oldman) reaches out to Dr. Franks (Tommy Lee Jones) to perform his “miracle transference” from Pope to Psycho inmate Jericho Stewart (Kevin Costner), allowing for Jericho to relay Pope’s thoughts and feelings…

Torn between the feelings and memories of someone else, and the madness that his world has encompassed till this point, Jericho must find Heimbahl (Jordi Molla) and “the Dutchman”, before the lives of Pope’s wife and daughter are diminished too…

I give CRIMINAL a rating between MUST SEE ON THE BIG SCREEN or WAIT AND CATCH THIS ONE ON DVD ~ Costner is back with a vengeance, Reynolds too ~ although, after the extreme action sequences in DEADPOOL, how can Reynolds ever do better than that!!! It was fab to see Jones back in action as the good Dr. Franks and it was fantastic too to see Gadot back on the BIG SCREEN so soon as well, as we just got to see her playing Wonder Woman just a few weeks ago. So, with all these accolades so far, why the in-between review? Well, Oldman’s character, CIA Director Wells was just annoying, at best, throughout the entire film. I also found myself quite nauseated by all the extremely graphic violence that was taking place on screen. It seems that with each passing year, the violence sequences continue to push the limits of what I actually want to, or wish to experience. But, with that all said, you don’t know how happy I was that HUMANITY wins out in the end of all the chaos and misery ~ leading me to suggest if you don’t really like LOTS of GRAPHIC VIOLENCE, then don’t plunk down too much cold hard cash to catch this one, but if you do, then by all means, head out to a theater near you this weekend to view!!!

Kathy Kaiser