Official Synopsis
In a last-ditch effort to stop a diabolical plot, a dead CIA operative’s memories, secrets, and skills are implanted into an unpredictable and dangerous death-row inmate in the hopes that he will complete the operative’s mission.
There are movies out there that spend an enormous amount of time trying to explain how outrageous elements of a story are pulled off. Christopher Nolan did a lot of that with the Interstellar. Zach Snyder’s Batman vs. Superman did that with Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne character, all while trying to humanize Superman a bit. And now we have the movie Criminal that is wanting us to believe that there is a method to transfer a dead man’s memories into another man’s brain.
The latter does not care for exploring the details.
Criminal just assumes you’re along for the ride. And, while it does seem a bit out there, it works just fine with the wrapper story that has been created for it. With that said, let’s just go with it, shall we?
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Bill Pope (Ryan Reynolds) is trying to cut a deal with a cyberterrorist named Jan Stroop (Michael Pitt) in hopes of providing money and asylum, as well as to avoid the destruction of the United States (or its allies). Along the way, Pope is caught by Xavier Heimdahl (Jordi Mollà), a crazy terrorist, who is also after Stroop. Pope is promptly tortured and killed (spoiler alert…too late). Upon discovering his fallen comrade, CIA mission director Quaker Wells (Gary Oldman) rushes to retain the memories of Pope through the help of brain surgeon Dr. Franks (Tommy Lee Jones), who has perfected a method of transferring memories from one brain to another. Having never performed the procedure on a human before, Franks knows of a frontal lobe empty violent prisoner named Jericho Stewart (Kevin Costner), who has murdered many folks/prisoners. The surgery is performed, Stewart gains Pope’s memories and begins to have conflicted feelings about his usual lifestyle. Hiding the fact that he has acquired the memories, Wells considers the procedure a failure and ushers Jericho out to pasture, in which he doesn’t go quietly.
In fact, he ends up murdering CIA agents because…well…he does that sort of stuff. Act one wraps with Jericho on the run and with him re-establishing Pope’s memories slowly. Thus, the first act ends. Yeah, no joke. That’s a lot to take in within one tiny act. But it is what it is.
The first act is quite filled to the brim with details and characters. Writers Douglas Cook and David Weisberg do a commendable job with putting those details in order and smoothed out before act two arrives. Does it all work? No, but the details you need for the rest of act two and three are firmly in place. The problem with act one really does lie in its lack of explanation for how an insane procedure of transferring memories from one being to another actually works. Sure, you can’t give all the details away because that would take an entire act, but assuming your audience is just going to take what you give them is a lot to assume in this day and age. Back in the 1980s, we would have eaten that like a warm cherry pie, but nowadays audiences demand details and a touch of realism. That isn’t the only issue with the first act, though. How Jericho gets into the story is never really explained. Franks just knows he exists without establishing a proper connection. Stewart is nothing more than a mysterious case study pulled from a medical journal, though even that isn’t truly added into the mix. Two major question marks, but the movie cares about as much as Jericho Stewart cares about his victims — not at all.
Act two finds Jericho loose on the streets of London recalling memories that aren’t his and ends up finding his way to Pope’s home, where his wife Jill (Gal Gadot) and their daughter reside. This moment of forceful entry into Pope’s house to harass his family is what makes Jericho’s character somewhat believable within the context of the story. His instinct to sexually assault Jill is brought to the forefront, but Pope’s memories of love and good heart overrides those terrible feelings, which introduces us to what will be a constant conflict between good and evil that Jericho is set to struggle with the rest of the story. Confused, hurting and desperately needing relief from his literal hole in the head, Jericho seeks out Dr. Franks and sadly finds himself back in the clutches of Wells, though willing to cooperate this time around. Once separated again, though, Jericho revisits Jill and gains her trust and help to find a bag of money that Pope has left behind for Stroop, but ends up captured by Heimdahl.
The second act is a bit messy. It’s tough to believe that Gal Gadot’s Jill would ever trust Jericho again, regardless of her long lost husband’s memories. Another feather in the unbelievability cap? Yes, but still we must push on because it’s entertaining to watch Costner do his thing. The second act is filled full of grotesque action that doesn’t beg for your forgiveness because of its lack of reasoning. It simply treats everything like a hardcore R action film from the 80s and just wants to entertain the hell out of you. If you accept it for what it is, you’ll find a lot of joy in this movie. If you reject it, you’re in for a rough third act. Regardless, the writers and director Ariel Vromen define their main character well through various action sequences, conflicted emotions and consistency. Nothing more, nothing less.
As the third act begins, we find Jericho now turning things up a bit. Forced to find Stroop, he leads Heimdahl to the cyberterrorist’s secret location and then everything turns up to 11. The rest you’ll have to figure out on your own, but just know that all ends strangely (and I do mean strangely) well for all good parties. There are several question marks and some head scratching moments, but act three could have been worse if all involve had gone away from their mindless action commitment.
Overall, Criminal is broken in many places, much like its main character, but it ends on the note it starts with — no details, just action. What more could you want from it? What honestly would you expect from it? It does give me hope that Kevin Costner has quite a bit more in the badass tank of his to do solid action films. The guy ruled in the 80s and he certainly still has it in Criminal.
(4K HDR review by Brandon Parker)
Video:
The 2160p image comes with an aspect ratio of 2.39:1, meaning you’ll have black bars along the top and bottom of your HDTV. The overall color palette doesn’t seem much more spectacular than 1080p transfer, but it does contain better clarity and richer color representation. The 4K resolution allows the small background text to be more readable as well. This can be seen during the CIA surveillance scenes. The small text on the wall of video displays is legible thanks to the added resolution. There seems to be a haze to the overall image. This is likely a stylistic choice, as it’s displayed more so in particular scenes. Close-up shots display a lot of detail. Viewers will be able to count the pores on the actor’s faces at times. The colors: red, yellow, orange, green, and blue really pop. This is to be expected in a 4K transfer with High Dynamic Range (HDR). I did see green lighting reflections in the glasses of actors. These are quite similar to the reflections seen in the 4K version of Eddie the Eagle. Perhaps the additional details seen in 4K transfers reveal the behind-the-scenes secrets in set lighting! One of the more spectacular scenes was the transfer of memory sequence. This scene is quite vivid, and full of details. It’s a really cool plot point in the story that looks great in 4K Ultra HD.
Audio:
It’s worth noting this is the same 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track that comes with the Standard Blu-ray release. The audio track surrounds the viewer with the action seen in this transfer. The intro fire fight does a great job filling your home theater with the sounds of bullets flying in every direction. The carjacking scene when Jericho (Kevin Costner) turns up the radio is a bit loud though. This track really cranks up when the first missile is fired from the sub.
On the special features side of the track, there isn’t a lot here, but there is enough to extend the action. Here’s what you have to look forward to on this Blu-ray:
– “Criminal Intent” Featurette
– “Director’s Notes” Featurette
– Deleted Scenes
– Madsonik’s “Drift and Fall Again” Music Video
Again, not much, but it fits the bill.
