Jolt

Jolt tries pretty hard to be Crank, Atomic Blonde, and John Wick, but it ends up falling short in most key areas such as poor directing and writing, a plot that could've been quite interesting but ended up being a overcomplicated mess, action scenes ruined by weak choreography and too much quick-edits, and mediocre performances.

There are a few redeeming qualities though such as decent cinematography, some cool music, fast pacing, and a pretty good cast lineup.

Overall, this was just another bland, generic, and overall forgettable action flick, and I wouldn't really recommend it unless you just wanna burn off 91 minutes of your time & got nothing better to do.

It's worth watching if you're a fan of Kate because she's beautiful in this film. The film itself is just ok.

It's a semi-dark, action comedy with an incredibly sexy leading actress. So wtf do the uptight prudes who dissed this film expect? If you're going to give this film a go do it with an open mind, without expectations, and it might keep you pleasantly occupied for 90 minutes or so.

Plot

A bouncer with a slightly murderous anger-management problem that she controls with the help of an electrode-lined vest she uses to shock herself back to normalcy whenever she gets homicidal.

Cast

Kate Beckinsale leads, Jai Courtney supports....ish, Bobby Cannavale stars, Stanley Tucci is wasted, David Bradley shines and Susan Sarandon is there as well for some unknown reason.

Verdict

Kate Beckinsale channels her inner (And outer) Charlize Theron and delivers a fast paced action movie which oozes style and offers an interesting premise. But does it deliver? No, not really.

Now let me put it out there, I don't like action flicks for the most part. I like substance and action movies rarely offer that, for me to enjoy one it needs to paint outside the lines and bring something different than the others. Gun battles, fist fights, car chases and explosions? We've seen them before, literally thousands of times. Give us something new.

Jolt provides a new concept I'll give it that, in fact I kinda liked it and Beckinsale took it and ran with it the best she could. It got my attention early and I was excited to see the direction it was going to go, alas it starts strong then staggers its way into generic Hollywood action territory and my attention was lost.

Jolt in someone else's hands could have been good, as it is sadly is a disappointing middle of the road action flick.

Rants

There's been an influx in female lead action films lately and unsurprisingly the misogyny has been rife as a result. Me, I welcome it however on the very same terms as a male lead. Namely, it needs to be believable and often they're simply not. I can't take Tom Cruise seriously as an action hero anymore than I could Paul Reubens! Alas when it comes to girls the same problem can rear its head, if they look absurd during action scenes then it flatlines the whole film. I don't care if the hero is male or female, just make me believe they're capable of the feats they're pulling off!

Breakdown

Beckinsale is on point Great concept Stylish Kind of fizzles out half way through Wastes a lot of its cast Relies on a lot of tired tropes.

It is very puzzling that there are a number of very negative reviews with "1" or "2" ratings. I suspect those didn't even watch this movie. Look at the distribution of ratings, most are in the "5", "6" and "7" categories. It definitely is not a "1" or a "2".

Beckinsale is great as the young woman who battles with impulse control, and with her great strength and speed can wreak lots of havoc if she is so inclined. She uses a self-administered shock ("jolt") to keep herself from following through when something agitates her. Most of the time. It should not be taken any more seriously than an action comic book, not everything has to be plausible. Plus there is an interesting thread of a story there. Did you know in war they taught dogs to go towards enemy tanks, with a bomb strapped to them?

But it is mostly hilarious with inventive situations and inventive dialog. But caution, the language is often really hard-R rated. It isn't a great movie but as fun entertainment it definitely hits the spot if you are in the right mood

My wife and I both enjoyed it, on Amazon streaming movies.