Films for Breakfast

You have to give credit where it’s due: Jason Statham, perhaps more than any other modern-day action star, continually puts out films where he’s not only the headliner, but where audiences are buying a ticket less for the plot and more for the promise of what he can deliver as an action hero. The only obvious rival is Tom Cruise, but Statham consistently cranks out at least two of these a year, much like Van Damme, Stallone, or Schwarzenegger did in their heydays. It’s less that Mutiny offers a radically different premise from something like Shelter or The Beekeeper, and more that its pitch is simply: “Jason Statham is beating bad guys up again, but this time, he’s doing it on a boat!”

And that’s exactly what the film is. Following the murder of his billionaire boss and being framed for the crime, Cole Reed (Jason Statham) boards a cargo ship to uncover the truth, only to stumble upon a larger conspiracy than he could have anticipated. And therein lies the simplicity of Mutiny – and, for the most part, what works about it. It’s a total meat-and-potatoes package that delivers exactly what works about Statham’s particular sensibilities. No more, but considering your ticket gets you Statham monologuing and beating the hell out of bad guys in increasingly inventive ways, it’s important to say that it’s also no less.

The boat, as a set piece, was my only real question mark going in. One-location action films can certainly work when enough care is put into them (Die Hard is arguably on the Mount Rushmore of quintessential action movies) but I was pleasantly surprised by how cleverly Mutiny turns the ship into an action playground. The film makes smart use of the various tools and machinery onboard, transforming them into weapons for Statham and his opponents alike, which leads to some genuinely inventive kills.

Director Jean-François Richet has been a pretty reliable action filmmaker for the past few years. I found 2023’s Plane to be a pleasant surprise, ridiculous title notwithstanding, and his work on Mutiny further solidifies his knack for this kind of material. He has a real eye for grit and brutality in his action sequences, making them feel appropriately visceral and memorable, while also framing the ship in genuinely interesting ways. More importantly, he creates a real sense of tension as Statham’s cat-and-mouse game with his adversaries unfolds. It’s nothing awards-worthy, but for the kind of movie Mutiny is, Richet’s direction is reliably effective – and sometimes that’s exactly what you need.

If Mutiny has any real faults, it’s that the film occasionally gets a little too plot-heavy for its own good. Statham’s best films of recent years, like The Beekeeper, understand the appeal of balancing his natural gruffness as an action star with his ability to fully embrace increasingly ridiculous situations. The first half of Mutiny moves a little slower than you might expect, and I do think that keeps it from reaching the higher tier of Statham’s recent outings. The plot itself is also fairly flimsy and uninteresting, so watching the film spend so much time dwelling on its intricacies can feel like a chore – especially when the action is genuinely solid and you continually find yourself wishing it would get back to the good stuff.

But if I had a nickel for every time I recommended an action movie with a weak plot that I was able to overlook because it had solid action and a fun leading performance, I’d have a lot of nickels! And Mutiny is no different. It has exactly the weaknesses you’d expect it to have, but, in turn, it delivers the positives you’d expect, too: a ridiculous premise, a solid buildup of villains you increasingly want to see get their comeuppance, a fun Statham performance, and a handful of memorable set pieces and kills. It’s a formula that’s hard to mess up, and luckily, Mutiny doesn’t.