Sun 19 Dec 2021
JOLT. Millennium, 2021. Kate Beckinsale, Bobby Cannavale, Laverne Cox, Stanley Tucci. Jai Courtney, David Bradley. Director: Tanya Wexler. Streaming on Amazon Prime.
There is about half a good movie in this recent action-comedy thriller. The second half? Pure dreck. And not good dreck at that.
Kate Beckinsale (last seen by me in The Widow, reviewed here ) plays Lindy Lewis (no relation), a woman who since she was a young girl has been afflicted with intermittent explosive disorder, which I have discovered is a real thing. Anyone having the problem is plagued by bouts of anger, rage and utter hostility toward others, expressed by outbreaks of uncontrollable violence.
Lindy’s case is far worse than others. She barely has a life, cannot hold a job, and when it comes down to it, simply cannot get along with others. Finally, now grownup, she has found a doctor to help control the symptoms. It’s only in the experimental stages, but by wearing an intricate wire harness, Lindy can push a button and give herself a jolt of electricity to subdue her violent urges.
Problem is, as soon as she finally meets the man of her dreams, he’s found murdered, even before they have their third date. The police are of no help. Solution: find the man responsible, and provide her own punishment.
This first half of the movie is fun and even a little romantic and and funny. Enjoyable, even. Problem is, moviewise, from this point on, it seems that working intensively with her problem over the years, Lindy has developed what the comic books call superpowers, and there’s no way that anyone that gets in her way can stop her. Lots of action, violence, bad language and fighting ensue. All of which are boring. Even the villains of the piece are boring. Eh. Who cares? Not I, said this viewer.
December 20th, 2021 at 7:36 pm
I liked this one a bit more without really disagreeing on points. First I thought Beckinsale handled the role well, and second I watched three other kick ass female protagonist films around this time and this was the most interesting, inventive, and vaguely believable of a bad lot.
In comparison just the hint of rom-com and Beckinsale’s performance was enough to get me past the problems. That this is comparatively sane, believeable and well written speaks volumes about how bad the others were.
December 20th, 2021 at 8:01 pm
I may have been a little hard on the film. As you might have guessed, I am no fan of superhero movies, especially when the superheroics begin, but then again, what’s a kickass superhero movie without supeheroics?
December 21st, 2021 at 7:54 am
I thought it was pretty ridiculous.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course,
😉
December 21st, 2021 at 7:58 am
There are a great many vigilante films over the last few years, with both men and women occupying the main role, it’s gone way past the point of cliche. Some are decent, but there may be too much now.
I remember seeing the trailer of John Wick at the cinema and laughing as I just accepted that it was a spoof of Taken – and was even looking forward to seeing it.
“They killed the dog given to me by my dead wife,” (or whatever) has to be one of the most hilarious and unintentionally self-parodic lines in any non-comedy.
Women are fronting a great many of these films, and they do seem to feature risque scenes which make them look like tawdry titillation from ’70s grindhouse movies. Can’t they make one in which the woman keeps most of her clothes on? Atomic Blonde, for example, would still be a pretty decent film without the lesbian love scene.
But maybe I’m wrong. I did, after all, watch Underworld for the plot and not the tight leather. I even read the prequel novel tie-in to get a better understanding of it all.
January 1st, 2022 at 5:55 pm
JOLT struck me as interesting enough at the time, and I can remember little of it (saw it perhaps six months ago). Not a serious film.
For me, the bruise fetishism of ATOMIC BLONDE might’ve been the most unfortunate aspect, but at least it does suggest that all the violence takes a(n insufficient, to track with reality) toll. Having seen both WONDER WOMAN and ATOMIC BLONDE within a week of each other in theaters, they, like JOLT, were flawed, not quite fully good…and all three were what we can still expect of comic-book movies. With the occasional film which manages to take a more sophisticated comic book/graphic novel and film it properly, such as GHOST WORLD…and those which are At Least as stupid as their source comics, such as WANTED (with Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, and a “rouser” in the old military-aimed film sense, and an arouser, for incels).