Netflix viewing on March 2nd in Chicago. Since Black Panther was scheduled to be released in 2018, I had been wanting to see this film to get geared up for. However, that didn't happen as I saw Black Panther first. So I saw this to see Chadwick Boseman in a role other than T'Challa, King of Wakanda.
Fabrice du Welz directs this revenge film that plays out along the lines of 1999's Payback or any revenge/action film where the protagonist works his/her way through a criminal organization in order to bring it down. Not that there's anything wrong with that as there are a few plot twists that give it a little originality.
Boseman plays Jacob King, a South African citizen who comes to LA to find his sister whom he's lost contact with. He finds that his sister is dead and he needs to find her killers. While working his way through the criminal organization, he meets a cast of characters like the single mother hooker with a heart of gold, some sketchy Euro-mobsters and some creepy LA rich guys. Boseman can be as ruthless as his enemies and displays compassion when needed. He manages to outsmart the villains and escape an assassination attempt by some crooked cops. He brings down the organization, collects his sister's body and returns to South Africa, all in under a week, where it's revealed that he is a police detective.
The film has a really good cast with Teresa Palmer as the single mom hooker with a heart o gold, Kelly. Luke Evans is the creepy dentist who has his dirty hands in a dirty pie and Alfred Molina as a creepy Hollywood producer with some disturbing hobbies. To be honest, Boseman's character is like T'Challa without the Wakandan gadgets. He's singularly focused and has an iron will.
I feel that the film was short changed with only a 43% Rotten Tomatoes rating. It's not a great film but it's a good film within the genre. The film is paced well with a 102 minute run time, I never looked at my watch. It's a little derivative but it's a good film.
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