From its ambivalent title onward, the action and science-fiction hybrid Criminal is a dud, an alternately dull and sharp headache of a film, the very existence of which is mystifying. Let us get the convoluted story out of the way. It opens with the murder of a London-based CIA agent (Ryan Reynolds). He dies before he can reveal where he hid a cyber criminal (Michael Pitt) and a bag containing ten million dollars. His flustered superior (Gary Oldman) enlists a scientist (Tommy Lee Jones) researching memory retrieval and transference. Lo and behold, the only candidate in the world to receive the memories is a long-imprisoned sociopath with the movie-ready name of Jericho Stewart (Kevin Costner). And so on and so forth, right? Jericho violently escapes after the implant. Wisps of information and imagery come to him slowly, along with the late spy's empathy and familial devotion. He is hunted by both the CIA and a Spanish anarchist (Jordi Mollà). The latter hopes to scorch the earth and incite nuclear winter because...the establishment.

The idiocy doubles and triples and quadruples as Criminal lumbers toward its inane conclusion. Rare is such wanton squandering of A-list talent. No one delivers a strong performance. Costner spends the first half trying very hard to portray Jericho as a burly, grunting, hard, ultra-violent son of a bitch; at one point, I honestly thought he was going to commit a sexual assault. The character becomes almost repulsive, and it is entirely unearned when he transitions into a more standard-issue Costner-brand action hero. (The film in general has a hard time navigating its fusion of savagery and sentimentality. It would need to be significantly more courageous and intelligent to productively contend with how thin Jericho stretches the definition of "antihero.") Jones is half asleep, his obvious disinterest in the material only intensifying our frustration with him for agreeing to do it, while Oldman surely needed sleep after shouting his way through every scene, his every moment on the screen a frenzied variation on, "Give me the information, you bastard!" or "Scramble a team, now, now!" Pitt is a handsome and distinctive actor largely underutilized outside of Boardwalk Empire and a few art-house films, but he is cut short here by inexplicable character motivations and an arbitrary touch-and-go Dutch accent.

Reynolds is fortunate to depart so early, but not before he gags on an electric cattle prod in a bit of borderline torture pornography indicative of the film's meaner-than-usual spirit. As his character's widow, newly crowned Wonder Woman Gal Gadot fares best, at least conveying a bit of grace and sensitivity, though it severely strains credulity how easily she concedes, yes, this American lug with a foul temper and a festering head wound is surely a quasi-reincarnation of my dead husband and a suitable playmate for my child.

Add in point-and-shoot direction with zero personality or style and a trundling structure curiously devoid of the key genre ingredients of propulsion and rooting interest, and the result is a, forgive me, Criminal waste of resources and time, the audience's in particular.

F

So you liked it?

You literally could say it has Deadpool, Wonder Woman, Comissioner Gordon, Jonathan Kent, and the general from Captain America and let them improv, and the end result would have been 1000 times better and more interesting then what is here.

Criminal

Very good action/sci-fi thriller. Great cast in Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Oldman, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds. Good action. Nice story. I was a bit surprised it wasn't made by Luc Besson actually. And it comes with a fantastic soundtrack. I felt like it should have been called "Jericho" really. It has some genuinely awesome scenes, most notably one where Jericho breaks into Gadot's house and ties her up while her daughter lays asleep in the other room, and when Jericho goes into a kebab shop and takes some food then assaults three guys outside and steals their van. Costner shines in this role. He is able to go between raw man and caring father, and the blend works well.

B+

Gross.

"I'm going to give 'im a job!" Hee haw, hee haw. This movie blows. Worst of Costner's career.

I am shocked you detest it.

Criminal has it's flaws, David did name a few of them, but I think none of them damage the heart of the film. It's sci-fi, so a deep sense of realism perhaps shouldn't be expected. The film above all is an actioner for me, and with a great lead at that. Costner steals the film with the crazy and later dedicated Jerico character. It's also nice to see the film rounded off with a recognizable cast. Oldman's character I felt was poorly written though, as there doesn't seem any depth to his part, and Tommy Lee Jones was left very little to do, but gave a good performance nonetheless. What makes the film stand-out for me, is how it's kept so fun and light. The film has a good pace, keeping me zoned into it.
Maybe some of lightness can be taken the wrong way, but things like "I'm going to give 'im a job!" actually just gave me smiles on my face.

Costner was previously in 3 days to kill, which has some overlap, but what I found a lot harder to digest to the extend of being boring.

Criminal felt nothing like that, and where Vromen doesn't really distinguish himself with this film, he does keep it all nice and neat.

I had a very good time with it.

B+

This felt very flat to me. The movie never really lifts off and while some of the chase and action scenes are great its misues its good cast for a paper-thin storyline and one-dimensional characters. Good acting overall, I liked Reynolds in this better but he was so little in this.

3/10

Yep. Costner is just too likable, even when being a complete cunt.

It's a decent timewaster. Yeah Costner's character isn't really likable, but he had some badass moments and I got a kick out of him beating up random people. The ensemble cast could have been utilized better, but overall I didn't have a problem with any of the performances. The action sequences were just the right amount of violent and bloody aswell eventhough their wasn't nearly as much as I was expecting. More Reynolds would have been nice too.