Jolt

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.

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.

Lindy (Kate Beckinsale) has anger issues since childhood. She was institutionalized but nothing helped except an experimental treatment from Dr. Munchin (Stanley Tucci). She self-induces electrical shocks to her body whenever she has murderous thoughts. It's a lonely existence until she starts dating nice accountant Justin. When he's murdered, she seeks revenge while police detectives Vicars (Bobby Cannavale) and Nevin (Laverne Cox) investigate.

The idea is interesting but it starts to wear thin sooner than expected. The first part's issue is that it gets repetitive. She has murderous vision, she gets a jolt, and the scene resets to normal. It happens over and over again. Once the premise is stated, the whole series of cinematic moves is not needed. The comedy needs to be better and I'm not sure that Kate Beckinsale can deliver it. She can definitely deliver the cool but she struggles to lead in this one. I like the start but the movie peters out over time.

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.