‘Mutiny’ movie review: Jason Statham deserved better than this messy thriller

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Jason Statham as Cole Reed in ‘Mutiny’ | Photo Credit: Dan Smith/Lionsgate

Mutiny apparently began its life as a sequel to the 2023 Gerard Butler film, Plane , also directed by Jean-François Richet. It was to be called Ship , laying the path for sequels that could have been called Train , Tank , Bus , Auto and various other means of transport. When Butler decided against the sequel, the script was re-jigged to become this strange mess.

Cole Reed (Jason Statham) is one of those strong, silent men with a checkered past, including service as a Marine and a police officer with the Met in the UK. Now, he is the bodyguard to Thai shipping magnate Tibu Campalo (Ramon Tikaram) after saving his life five years ago.

Cole and Tibu are good friends, playing chess while discussing life and sundry stuff. Incidentally, when chess is introduced into a film, does a chess expert plot the moves? Tibu has decided to sell his company; as he tells Cole, the shipping empire was his dream, not his son Kameron’s (Chaneil Kular). We see another businessman, Jaran (Simon Kluth), making sinister phone calls about stopping the deal.

Jason Statham as Cole Reed in ‘Mutiny' | Photo Credit: Dan Smith/Lionsgate

On the way back from celebrating closing the deal, the car Tibu and Cole are in is attacked, and Tibu is killed. Cole is blamed for his boss’s death and goes on the run. For some reason, he gets on a cargo ship as a means of clearing his name. All who have been faithfully following the plot, such as it is, are left scratching their heads at the bizarre cause and effect.

A villainous captain, Marko Madsen (Roland Møller), a courageous third shipmate, Angie Ellis (Annabelle Wallis), who is dragged back to duty even though she promised her daughter she would be back in Los Angeles in two days, human trafficking rings and a very conscientious crew aboard a US destroyer are all running helter-skelter, while shady businessmen make calls and the captain squints dangerously as he shaves.

Jason Statham films are meant to be comfort watches where you know exactly what to expect — skull-cracking fights, wall-to-wall action and some wry one-liners packed into 90 minutes of blindingly obvious fun.

Mutiny commits the cardinal sin of moving at the pace of drying cement. The fights, when they remember to put them in, are treacle-paced, and by the time the hook comes into the frame, you are rolling your eyes muttering enough already.

Jason Statham as Cole Reed in ‘Mutiny' | Photo Credit: Dan Smith/Lionsgate

The stunts are not imaginative, and the setting is not particularly claustrophobic. Places where there is a chance for some cool action sequences, such as Cole climbing down the gigantic anchor chain, inexplicably happen off-screen.

Mutiny , with its ludicrous plot — yes, action movies can get by on the seat of their pants, but then they should be propulsive rather than creeping along like a distraught tortoise — and unconvincing acting, is a disappointment on all fronts.

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