Review of Criminal (2016) by Kiosk80 — 17 Sep 2021

A criminal is implanted with the memory of a dead CIA agent in hopes of stopping an imminent nuclear attack.

This movie feels like a Bourne movie without Matt Damon and his martial arts. The intrigue and the gritty action makes it feel like it takes place in a Bourne movie-verse. It helps that there is a lot of talented cast. Kevin Costner was excellent despite my initial doubts. Tommy Lee Jones played a convincing doctor who cares about his patient. However, there is not much for Gary Oldman. He is basically Commissioner Gordon with more dialogue and running. A brief appearance by Ryan Reynolds also helped drive the plot a lot. His nice-guy character helped set the tone for Costner's character development during the movie. In fact, Kevin Costner carries the movie effortlessly. He is both menacing, and sensitive. His combination of brutality, and sensitivity makes him a close parallel to Damon's Jason Bourne and gives a certain freshness to the spy genre. Yet, it is too bad Scott Adkins did not get to do much. He is the reason I wanted to see the movie in the first place. But I think if he does his martial arts in the movie, it would detract too much from the story. However, he does have quite a presence in the movie. You always feel that this guy has something in him, and he is so serious. In short, criminal is a surprisingly good movie and its strength lies on its focus on the characters, and what drives them; especially Kevin Costner's character.