Shadow Force Review: If Only Joe Carnahan’s Mostly Generic Action Thriller Can Match the Go-For-Broke Third Act
Like the title of Joe Carnahan’s latest movie, Shadow Force slipped under my radar before I chanced upon its existence on the local cinema listing. Carnahan, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Leon Chills, follows a couple — Kyrah (Kerry Washington) and Isaac (Omar Sy) — who are both top special forces operatives from the titular clandestine organisation. They have since gone rogue after falling in love and even ended up bearing a child named Ky (Jahleel Kamara).
For years, they lay low with Kyrah continuing to do the killing while Isaac is in charge of taking care of their son as a stay-at-home dad. All that changes when Isaac is forced to stop a bank robbery because one of the masked robbers threatens his son, and the next thing we know, his cover is blown. It doesn’t take long before their former boss, Jack (Mark Strong), finds out about the bank robbery through the security footage, prompting him to assemble an elite team of assassins to track down Isaac and Kyrah.
News travels fast, forcing Kyrah to reunite with Isaac and their son. From there, it’s all about protecting the family against Jack and his assassins. A movie like this is nothing new, but as long as it delivers the goods, I’m okay with the result. Too bad that’s not the case, especially the first two acts that feel like they are executed on autopilot. The story is as formulaic as it gets, the kind that belongs to the straight-to-streaming release rather than theatrical rollouts.
Except for the movie’s unique character traits, namely Ky is particularly fond of Lionel Richie’s ’80s songs, including “Truly” and even going way back to The Commodores’ “Brick House”. And yes, he can even sing and memorise the song “Truly” right to the tee at one point in the movie. Then, there’s Isaac, who turns out to be deaf and relies on his hearing aids to communicate with his son and wife.
But when it comes to dispatching the bad guys, he would remove the hearing aids to get into the groove. Earlier in the movie, Carnahan seems to be taking the familiar “blink-and-you-miss-it” phrase to the next literal level during the bank robbery sequence. It seems like a novel approach, except his creative decision of showing the so-called action scene from the perspective of Ky robs the excitement. The action continues to disappoint with the fog-shrouded car chase that is nearly incomprehensible, thanks to its poor lighting and haphazard editing. The fight choreography is just hastily put together, making me wonder if Carnahan has forgotten to mount even a decent action set piece.
Just when I figure Shadow Force is largely hopeless right to the end, the movie somehow improves, even though not by a large margin, during the propulsive third act. Sure, the staging of the action sequences is still wobbly in places, but at least they have a sense of clarity and visceral flair compared to the ones seen earlier in the movie. Not to mention, it makes me feel as if Carnahan suddenly regains his directorial mojo and injects reasonable go-for-broke fun into the climactic finale. This includes everything from thrillingly staged shootouts to hand-to-hand combats, a motorboat chase, and plenty of hilarious banters.
The third act is where the entertaining chemistry between Kerry Washington’s feisty Kyrah and Omar Sy’s stoic Isaac works wonders once they take down the bad guys in style. We also have Da’Vine Joy Randolph in her noteworthy supporting turn as Kyrah and Isaac’s trusted ally, offering a much-needed comic relief as Auntie Clanter. Throwing in Mark Strong in his familiar main antagonist-you-love-to-hate vibe, Shadow Force has most of the fun incorporated in Carnahan’s irreverent brand of action-comedy tropes in the third act. If only the earlier parts of the movie could match the gleeful B-movie fun of the third act, I would have given Shadow Force a better rating.
