Having helmed such actioners as Smokin’ Aces, The A-Team, The Grey, and Boss Level, as well as writing credits on the Death Wish remake and Bad Boys For Life, director Joe Carnahan is no stranger to the genre and the excessive cheese it can give way to. For his latest effort, Shadow Force, he’s working with what he knows, not remotely upsetting the genre play book within the covert operations/spy romance subsect in the process, but providing enough violent thrills, intentional humour and playful lead chemistry for it to be worth a breezy, escapist viewing.
The film initially sets us up in the life of Isaac Sarr (Omar Sy, looking every bit the capable, charming action lead), a loving father to 5-year-old son Ky (Jahleel Kamara, the most charismatic kid we’ve seen on screen in a long while) and living a seemingly harmless existence. Isaac relays stories to Ky about his absent mother and shares a love of Lionel Richie, and though Isaac is semi-open about his career past – he describes himself as a one-time bad guy who thought he was doing good – he still makes sure to shield Ky from any brutality. We see this in the film’s first major action set piece, where Isaac, withdrawing from a bank, is momentarily taken hostage as part of a robbery. He informs Ky to close his eyes and block his ears and, in a brief sequence that should come with a strobe light-effect warning, he single-handedly takes them out.
From what we gather from archetypal villain type Jack Cinder (Mark Strong, relishing his time on screen), Isaac is a former operative member of an elite shadow ops unit known as Shadow Force, and when he and fellow agent Kyrah Owens (Kerry Washington, who looks all too at ease brandishing a weapon and executing hand-to-hand combat) broke professional protocol by falling in love and having a child together, they went dark and have been on the run ever since. Kyrah has seemingly been more active, keeping tabs on Isaac and Ky, and though she would have preferred the two most important men in her life to have stayed hidden, Isaac’s bank face-off brought unwanted attention that has forced him back on the grid.
With Cinder wanting to take Kyrah and Isaac out, Carnahan’s script (co-written with Leon Chills) very much adheres to the narrative beats we expect, as the couple work together to protect Ky at every turn, whilst playfully flirting with each other; as estranged as they are, the chemistry is still as potent as ever between the two. With the film very much operating on a level where it’s playing everything with a knowing wink, it injects a heft of humour into the action, with Cliff “Method Man” Smith and Da’Vine Joy Randolph the main culprits as “Auntie” and “Unc”, the couple’s confidants and unofficial bodyguards. Whilst Smith and Randolph are having a true ball here, the humour occasionally feels as if it doesn’t belong in the film overall, but it’s never enough of a comedic distraction to take away from Shadow Force‘s stance as an action vehicle.
With plotting that heavily relies on coincidence, the standard double crossing mentality and excessive bullet spray, Shadow Force is very much machismo-fueled action 101 – and it’s all the better for it. Washington makes for a slick, practiced genre heroine, and Sy matches her with a likeable tenderness that offsets his hulking frame. You’ve seen this type of action flick before, but Shadow Force packages it confidently enough that you’ll be satisfied to enjoy its familiarity.
THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Shadow Force is now screening in Australian theatres.
