Criminal

Actors: Kevin Costner, Gal Gadot, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Oldman, Alice Eve, Michael Pitt, Jordi Mollà, Antje Traue.

Rating: 9 out of 10, I thought this was much better than most critics are giving it credit for. Costner does evil way, way better than most leading men (see Mr. Brooks) and he chews up a lot of scenery here. Once you get over the hump of accepting the impossible science involved in transferring a recently deceased secret agent’s memories into an uber-violent sociopath, it’s a great ride. Costner does an interesting job of displaying the inner conflict of a lifelong criminal having a conscience imposed upon him. The only thing criminal in the movie was the underuse of Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Oldman going a little (lot) over the top. The best scenes involve the dead agent’s wife, played by Gal Gadot, who seems to get better each time out. There’s funny (if very violent) scenes where very polite English society, where the movie takes place, is exposed to the ruthlessly inappropriate Costner character, probably every Englishman’s secretly held opinion of Americans in general. So, ignore the critics and go see this very passable action flick with Costner refusing to wait in any queues to the abject horror of all.

MVP: Costner as the dually minded anti-hero Jericho Stewart