Criminal (2016)

Other reviewers have given plot summaries so I'll just focus on the acting and production, both of which are pretty much ... routine. It's not a bad film. For a modern action thriller it's competently made, but without anything really special going on, including the last-minut Reveal. It's quite watchable throughout though, and Kevin Costner is the standout once he's introduced. He maintains his gruff, gravel-voiced demeanor from start to finish, first as a criminally psycho violence-prone baddie unable to even tell right from wrong. But once the memories of a recently-killed espionage agent are inserted into his brain, things change bit by bit until he essentially recovers his humanity and saves the day. The rest of the cast is impressive on paper, including Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Gal Gadot, Ryan Reynolds, Alice Eve among others. (Gadot is seen here just before moving on to Wonder Woman.) But the thing is, except for Costner they're all replaceable. They all do just fine, but you can visualize any of half a dozen other actors doing their roles equally well because the dialog and plot devices are all routine. Costner's part is the one that is really distinctive, so see it for that (but not worth paying for a DVD -- the Netflix option is just fine).

Kevin Costner saved this; Gal Gardot tried, Reynolds and Tommy Lee miscast and wasted. Hopefully, the money for being in flick was worth it because everything else sucked. So glad I saw it for free as on a slow night.

An excellent action suspense movie, with a little sci fi thrown in. Costner really convinces in this role. Oldman and Tommy Lee Jones are also credible. Memory action films seem to have their own genre now. But this one uses real science, though somewhat of a leap, to give it credibility. It also asks the question and tries to answer, who we really are. Is it the Fromtal lobe of the brain and theta waves that determine good and evil? Are we the sum of our memories and experiences? Or is it all of the above? It does all this while still giving us a good action suspense plot. This review is probably the largest margin between the average reviewer and myself on this site. I don't get how they can trash this. I highly recommend it.

Fairly entertaining yarn: though a mostly ridiculous science fiction plot. A nasty criminal has in effect a partial brain transplant to get vital info from a deceased person in order to prevent a nuclear Armageddon.And our hero criminal eventually turns from nasty to nice; but can he survive to save the world? Will it help having Wonder Woman on his side?I thought Kevin Costner just about stole the show with a gritty masculine performance.Some decent action sequences plus a sprinkling of catchy music makes this movie worthy of a respectable:6/10.