“Criminal” comes to Ultra HD 4K with a splash. While a modern spy thriller with Sci-Fi elements typically lends itself to looking great, the 4K disc really pops. Deep luscious blue cooled colors and an amazing field of depth. It’s quite impressive for a film like this, but it also brings up another point. There’s a reason why I’m talking about the visual aesthetic before discussing the main film.
The film is a mess of a barely there plot twist by way of Sci-Fi device. Ryan Reynolds doesn’t get enough time to turn his dead agent Bill into a character that we care about. So, when he gets his memories forced into Kevin Costner’s head, it’s up to Costner to act on behalf of himself and Reynolds. That’s one acting dimension too many for Costner and he flops hard when he has to get domestic. Sure, the scenes with Michael Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones work out. It’s just that Costner doesn’t feel real when trying to make a connection with Gal Godot.
Most of this is written off as Costner’s character being a psycho without emotional connection. While that solves why he was picked for this project, this move has all of the character dimensions of a later Chuck Norris vehicle. I’ll give the film points for creating an interesting world to put a new spin on the Spy game. It’s just…did it matter? The answer is no.
