(Image credit: Lionsgate)
Jason Statham is a remarkably reliable and consistent action star, but he has to do more than just show up for a movie to be successful. Filmmakers need to know how to utilize Statham to his greatest potential, or at least how to get out of his way to let him do what he does best. I may not have loved Statham’s previous 2026 action movie, “Shelter,” but director Ric Roman Waugh understood exactly how to work with Statham, providing him with the right mix of action set pieces and moments of downtime.Tom's Guide Verdict: “Mutiny”Rating: 2.5/5 StarsVerdict: Jason Statham remains one of cinema’s most dependable action heroes, but “Mutiny” is far from his best work. The thriller about a fugitive bodyguard stowing away on a cargo ship to take down human traffickers is slowly paced and full of dull exposition, with occasional bursts of intense action.Where to watch: Opens in theaters Aug. 21I can’t say the same for “Mutiny” director Jean-François Richet, who holds Statham back for far too much of the movie’s brief running time. The sporadic action sequences are solid but unremarkable, and they aren’t quite enough to make up for the stretches of dull exposition in between. Richet also directed 2023’s Gerard Butler hit “Plane,” and “Mutiny” is similarly generic and poorly paced, without the benefit of the buddy dynamic between Butler and Mike Colter in “Plane.”Statham fans may find a few bright spots, but everyone else can just rewatch his many superior action movies at home.‘Mutiny’ rushes through its basic thriller plotStatham doesn’t need a lot of complicated back story for his man-of-action characters, but “Mutiny” is notably awkward in its attempts to establish the personal relationships of Statham’s Cole Reed before he’s thrust into peril. After an opening flash-forward featuring a sudden car crash, “Mutiny” steps back to introduce Cole as the bodyguard for a Thai shipping mogul (Ramon Tikaram) who’s about to sell the company he’s owned for decades.
