At the start of the nineties Kevin Costner was one of the biggest stars in the movie world, but because the number of visitors slowly started dropping after the success with Dances with Wolves he slowly disappeared from the spotlight. This doesn’t mean he didn’t keep working and during the last couple of years you slowly see him appearing again doing small roles in big movies (like Man of Steel or Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit). And although he was starring in 3 Days to Kill, the movie itself wasn’t that good. Two years later and now he stars in Criminal. Is this the comeback Costner’s been waiting for?
You could almost call Criminal a sequel to Self/Less. Because the movie starts out with Ryan Reynolds as Damian. Instead of a real estate agent he’s playing a CIA-agent now who gets his memory copied to the brain of Jericho Stewart (Costner), a man on death row and who has not feelings at all and is extremely unpredictable. The goal of that memory transfusion? To find the location of the mysterious Jan Strook (Michael Pitt), also known as The Dutchman (and trust me, it´s obvious that he isn´t from the Netherlands by the way he pronounces his own name). Jericho is more interested though in a bag full of money and uses the memories he has received, together with his knowledge of Damian’s wife (Gal Gadot), to find it. Dr.Franks (Tommy Lee Jones) tries to keep Jericho from losing it, while CIA-boss Quaker Wells (Gary Oldman) is willing to take bigger risks in order to keep The Dutchman out of the hands of the Russian as he is in possession of very valuable intelligence.
The concept behind this movie might not be very original, but thanks to great acting by Costner (who carries the movie) he shows Jericho to be an unpredictable man who can snap any second but also is struggling with the influence of Damian’s memory in his body. It’s a film which is simply a nice watch. Don’t expect much depth from this, but because of the right combination of action, unpredictability, a little bit of drama and mystery Criminal manages to make its two-hour running time fly by. This might not be the comeback of Costner, but he shows he’s still an actor you shouldn’t forget about.
This looks promising, and I mean, Reynolds, yumm. And Costner, also yumm, if I think about it.
🙂 I do have to say that Costner is in it more than Reynolds
Yeah Costner definitely have had a good run at the box office back in the late 80s and early 90s. Even after the success of Dances with Wolves, he had a couple of hits, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and The Bodyguard. But then he starred in a couple of duds, Wyatt Earp and the behemoth flop Waterworld.
This film has potential but it just fell flat on so many levels. I did enjoy Costner’s performance, he definitely carried the movie.
Yeah, I remember that time around Wyatt Earp, Waterworld and The Postman. It did have more potential, but I was pretty entertained by it.
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I might give this a shot Nostra, though your review is one of the rare positive ones out there 🙂
Is it? Haven’t read any others so I watched this without being influenced 😉
Doesn’t really sound like something I’ll be rushing to. Costner WAS great in the past but he needs a director like Tarantino or Nolan to reignite the flame.