Criminal

Dir: Ariel Vromen

2016

**

I loved Ariel Vromen's 2013 thriller The Iceman and had hoped for a film just as good as it, but as much as Vromen isn't the only one to blame, he has let himself down here somewhat in my opinion. Maybe it was because most of the action happened in the most unglamorous of places such as Croydon and Kingston (two miserable towns surrounding London that I was constantly dragged to during my childhood), maybe it was the blue/green tint, wobbly camera and uninteresting visuals but throughout the film I felt unstimulated and unconvinced. The idea is nonsensical sci-fi, I loved it but I don't think it was explored particularly well nor did it reach its full potential. We're told that serial criminal Jericho Stewart (played by Kevin Costner) is the perfect candidate for a new radical memory transplant due to his damaged frontal lobe. It is said to be the reason he turned to crime in the first place as that childhood injury that caused the damage effected his emotional development and control of his own impulse. He basically can't help himself, has zero empathy or morals. I buy it. The idea that you can transmit the memories of a dead man into the living through 'electric impulses' I found a little less believable but not something I couldn't go along with. However, Costner is utterly unconvincing as a thug who has just undergone brain surgery, Tommy Lee Jones looks positively bored with his role as sympathetic brain surgeon and Gary Oldman's performance is somewhere between diet Jim Gordon and a sober Norman Stansfield. They've all come a long way from JFK. Oldman's heart isn't in it, Costner is clearly miscast and Tommy Lee Jones couldn't look less enthusiastic if he tried. Cameos by Robert Davi and Colin Salmon made me sit up and Ryan Reynolds is faultless in his small role but Gal Godot could have been replaced with a broom and it would have made little difference to her character and Jordi Molla's villain is the most two dimensional bad guy I've seen since Satan in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The film reaches 'couldn't care less' territory pretty fast and doesn't come close to redeeming itself by the time the end credits roll. The only reason Criminal might escape the 'worst of the year' lists is because it is incredibly forgettable.