'Dangerous' Review: Scott Eastwood's talent wasted in clunky and stupid action flick
Contains spoilers for 'Dangerous'
Having watched 'Dangerous', the only question would be, "What have you done, Scott Eastwood?" Called an action thriller, the flick fails spectacularly despite a solid cast. With Eastwood, Tyrese Gibson, Mel Gibson, Famke Janssen, and Kevin Durand, an action blockbuster, even if made for TV, would be a watchable and passable flick. But this one gets an F. An absolute squib directed by David Hackl and written by Christopher Borrelli, 'Dangerous' just doesn't get going in the 109-minute duration.
Eastwood plays Dylan Forrester, a reformed sociopath of sorts whose previous life saw him serve as a Navy Seal. He's got Mel Gibson's Dr Alderwood as his therapist. Now that's dangerous in the first place to have Mad Max give you counseling sessions. The movie is practically a lost son saving his family from a criminal conspiracy they're embroiled in. When Dylan's brother Sean dies under mysterious circumstances, he travels to Guardian Island, a remote isle that his brother was converting a naval base into a bed and breakfast place.
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Midway through the brother's wake, the family finds themselves sieged by armed men looking for something that Sean possessed. They snuff out Tyrese Gibson's Sheriff McCoy within minutes, thereby proving that another actor's role was wasted. And through all of this Dylan's challenge is to see which version he can be: The one that can help save his family or still remain neutral so as to maintain all the progress he's made with the doc. No surprises that he chooses to go back a lean, mean, muscled killing machine with lunacy filled in his eyes.
And all the while, he is being pursued by Agent Shaughessy (Famke Janssen), an FBI agent, while he's trying to take down the baddies, led by a charismatic, yet deadly Cole (Kevin Durand). His cronies get a few lines here and there but not enough that counts. If there's someone doing all the talking in each frame that she's in, that's Brenda Bazinet's Linda Forrester who calls Dylan insane almost every minute.
It is a pity that an actor of Eastwood's caliber has wasted his time and talent in a movie that just asks for too much from him. The rest of the cast play their part but their roles aren't fleshed out and it takes a good 70 minutes to even get to what's happening other than random killing and some stray bullets whizzing past. If this were to be a redemption story of a sociopath, that would have been acceptable, but it was just about a man who decided to get back to what he does best and he has a good reason for it.
Poor direction, a complex plot, clunky writing let the movie down among other things. To be honest, this one maybe, just maybe would have worked as a TV series, but as a movie, odds are that the popcorn's the only thing that can keep you going. Because clearly, the film can't.