The opening of “Criminal” might make you think you’re in for a Jason Bourne movie starring Ryan Reynolds. Nope. What you’re in for is a delightfully cheesy ’90s-style action movie starring Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Oldman, with Costner doing a Liam Neeson-style tough guy career reinvention. It’s quite the bait and switch.
“Criminal” is written by the screenwriting team behind “The Rock” and “Double Jeopardy,” and directed by Ariel Vromen (“The Iceman”). Jones plays Dr. Franks, a researcher who has developed a process to transplant one person’s memories into another person’s brain.
When the need arises to get CIA agent Bill Pope’s (Reynolds) memories out of his head, Franks (-enstein) has the perfect candidate — Jericho Stewart (Kevin Costner), a killer and psychopath in a maximum security penitentiary.
CIA boss Quaker Wells (Oldman) has got no time for human trials or to find a better, less crazy candidate. They need Pope’s memories to find a Dutch hacker (Michael Pitt) who has hacked into a U.S. missile system.
Turns out, psychopaths from the federal pen aren’t super reliable or compliant. Though the memories take, Jericho has no patience for Oldman’s screeching, and he busts himself out as quickly as possible thanks to his shiv-making skills.
The premise is completely ludicrous and people shout deliciously silly things like, “If you had kept better tabs on the Dutchman, we would have already had the wormhole!” You will wonder constantly why this isn’t a Nicolas Cage movie. Gary Oldman is totally out of control, chomping the scenery within an inch of its life.
But, the movie is actually kind of good. The emotional stakes are there, and director Vromen never lets it stop moving. Even when it’s chaotic, it’s still clear. Costner is also pretty great, even when he’s gamboling about London like a rambunctious hobo. A sociopathic lifelong prisoner released onto metropolitan European streets is just fun — he discovers EDM! And lattes!
It’s initially kind of hard to take Costner seriously, but he actually ends up being quite good as the brutal Jericho, and everyone around him is at least fully committed and game to go along for the ride.
