Kerry Washington appears to be Syrah in Force Shadow.Juan Pablo Gutierrez / Lionsgate / Lionsgate
Shadow force
Directed by Joe Carnahan
Written by Leon Chills and Joe Carnahan
With Kerry Washington, Omar Sy and Mark Strong
Classification 14a; 104 minutes
Open In theaters May 9
If we are not currently thick in the middle of an action film crisis, then we certainly hang on to the edge of the cliff of a single shift of a index far from all the genre plunging to his rocky and bloody death. Aside from inexhaustible and inconvenience John Wick Cinematographic universe-and the occasional punch of the solar plexus graceful of filmmakers Never-Say-Die-Die-Die like Gareth Evans-in 2025, were flooded with acts of action as life as life as the most anonymous screen.
Love hurts,, Back in action,, Novocaine,, Flight risk,, G20,, The accountant 2the last Captain Americaand large pieces of sometimes respectable A worker To have each, in their own way, involuntarily strengthened all the ROARY discussion points of cinephiles healthier than those who think that action films are nothing more than toxic popcorn nuclei: superficial, stupid and gross affairs in Blow-'EM-UP.
Each poorly designed action film, published by an edition and confused tonnement is a chip more stacked against a genre which, when led by artists who know the deep reservoirs of pleasure found in creative chaos, proves the fundamental power of the cinematographic medium. A bad action film is not only disappointing – it is an affront to the reason why many of us go to the cinema.
Which is a very hyperbolic way to say that the new spy thriller Shadow force deserves to be buried deeply in the catalog of any random streaming service, to never be found by the most indifferent and unknown algorithm of observation. (Sampling, this title, which has been seated on the Lionsgate shelf since its shooting in 2022, has been released in honest theaters to the good, not being weighted directly in streaming.)
A little new in his scenario but completely dull in execution (and its many executions), Shadow force Follows two allegedly charming black-op specialists, Kyrah (Kerry Washington) and Isaac (Omar Sy), who have been on the run since they fell in love and carried a son (Jahleel Kamara), two great non-no in the eyes of their CIA-Chief Superior (Mark Strong). The vanity of our blood-Sang is the blood has potential-especially each time the sweet SY (better known for its star turn on Netflix Lupine) Get a quality screen time with Kamara, most of their dialogue delivered in the native French of SY – but is quickly invalidated by the film without inspiration of the film.
Nothing in Shadow force Surprises, delights or even attempts to raise your pulse above a contractions. The shootings, the car continue, the combat to the melee – everything is choreographed with the energy and inventiveness of a particularly dull laziness. As the forts are trying to better Washington and Sy in a speed boats race – which ends with such a brief noise that you cannot help but think that the producers of the film simply did not have the funds to finish the sequence – you will be in such a deep sleep that it would take a dozen real strikes to wake you up.
The fact that the case is so dull is all the more surprising given the history of director Joe Carnahan. While he has spent the last years Narca And As smokeduntil Shadow force You can at least count on Carnahan to offer a kind of energy opposite. (Even his thriller for most of 2021 inert Copshop Offered the pleasure of opposing the opposable gender forces of Gerard Butler and Frank Grillo to each other.) Here, Carnahan is not so much on the automatic pilot that he has completely disengaged, throwing the keys to his non -unionized Robotaxi equivalent.
Shadow force It's not exactly the death of death for the genre – in a few weeks, Tom Cruise will save us all with the new Mission: Impossible Film, and I hope someone there will take the new Wild Parkour experience by Michael Bay, We are story. But Carnahan's film does not help action films as much as it hurts them. And in this case, too much pain is not anyone's gain.
