Jolt

Not exactly high art but enjoyable and doesn't take itself seriously.

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.

There is no way this is as bad as a 1, 2, or 3 as others have said. It is "decent" at its worse (meaning watchable), if you are willing to put up with a lot of standard problems that a TON of action movies have in them. It is an over-the-top action movie with a fairly new twist (giving the movie its name). A better script would have made this so much better though!

Semi-spoiler but not really: I was able to look past many of the "problems" mentioned above and decided with its tongue firmly in place, its campiness made it an acceptable romp in the action genre. The motivation behind the twist in the end was a stupid trope and really disappointing...

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.

I had to bring up Crank because the similarities are definitely intentional: this is an R rated, single syllable titled, hyper violent, potty mouthed action movie with an English lead. Though it would have served it better to really go for the extremes the same way Crank did.

It's entertaining enough, with a script that had some fun ideas and turns, but most of the good stuff was underdeveloped. Probably would have fared better with a better director. Still, the cast is good(always fun to see Stanley Tucci) and the action is decent.

For the less than 90 minute runtime, this is a pretty enjoyable waste of time.