‘Father Joe’ Review: Kiefer Sutherland and Al Pacino in a Holy Mess of an Action Flick

Of the many questions you might ask while watching the latest Luc Besson -produced bargain bin action flick, Father Joe , the first is most certainly: What the hell — forgive me father, I meant what the heck — were Kiefer Sutherland and Al Pacino thinking by signing on to this thing?

Another is: When is the movie supposed to be taking place? The cars all seem to be from the late ’70s or ’80s, but there are desktop PCs and old Nokia cell phones. My guess is that it’s sometime in the 1990s, the period during which Besson hit his high mark helming stylized thrillers like La Femme Nikita and The Professional . It also feels like that could have been when he first dashed off the script for Father Joe , stuffed it in a drawer, and then for reasons that are most likely financial, decided to resurrect it for us today. Related Stories Movies 'A Bit of Light' Review: A Despondent Man Stumbles Into a Renewed Sense of Connection in a Mournful, Quietly Comic Drama From Iran Movies Venice Critics' Week Awards: Tommaso Usberti's 'Before the War' Crowned Best Film Father Joe The Bottom Line A bargain bin B-movie. Venue: Venice Film Festival (Out of Competition) Cast: Kiefer Sutherland, Ever Anderson, Al Pacino, Michael Rispoli, Fred Melamed Director: Barthélémy Grossmann Screenwriter: Luc Besson 1 hour 46 minutes

Credited as writer and producer, with EuropaCorp regular Barthélémy Grossmann taking on directing duties, Besson oversees another schlocky genre flick with a few bravura fight scenes but not much else going for it. Sutherland and Pacino rarely seem to be enjoying themselves in roles that require them to recite the French action maven’s barely passable dialogue, which they do without much fanfare. After premiering out of competition in Venice, Father Joe should head for a modest afterlife on streaming.

Sutherland stars as the titular gun-toting priest, who seems like a mash-up of two action heroes ( John Wick and Constantine) previously played by Keanu Reeves. After serving in the special forces and losing his daughter to a drug overdose (this all seen through wonky flashbacks), Father Joe makes it his mission to take down all the smack-dealing syndicates in New York — or a city that’s meant be New York but looks like an amalgam of CGI and an unnamed Eastern European capital.

He begins by ambushing the warehouse of a mafia henchman (Michael Rispoli), offing dozens of men without ever committing a sin, at least according to his own interpretation of the scriptures. Joe’s vigilante antics soon draw the ire of mob kingpin Giuseppe Falcone (Pacino) — this is the best name Besson could come up with — who confronts the killer priest in a confessional before vying to take him down. There’s also a subplot involving organ harvesting, Russian traffickers and a rabbi (Fred Melamed) who joins forces with Father Joe, proving that Goys and Jews can sometimes fight crime hand-in-hand.

The whole thing plays like something concocted by an 8th grader sitting in the back of biology class and doodling movie ideas in his notebook, offering more proof that Besson has never quite risen above the juvenile tendencies of his early years.