The 355 – Movie Review
122 Minutes, Rated PG-13
Written by Theresa Rebeck, Bek Smith, and Simon Kinberg
Directed by Simon Kinberg
**NOTE: You can read my preliminary thoughts, then you can listen to Ryan and I discuss the film.**
Synopsis:
When a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands, a wild card CIA agent joins forces with three international agents on a lethal mission to retrieve it, while staying a step ahead of a mysterious woman who’s tracking their every move.
Well, one thing The 355 has going for it is that it is completely loaded in the cast department. That being said, the plot is rather pedestrian, as we find ourselves once again trying to obtain a one-of-a-kind, universal system hacking device, which–if it falls into the wrong hands–can black-out cities, crash planes, etc. etc…. you get the idea.
BTW, are there ever any “right hands” for something like this? I thought not.
Regardless, The 355 provides plenty of the spy chase shoot-em-up action we’ve come to expect from franchises such as James Bond, Mission Impossible, and it even tries to bring some of the hyper-real close combat of John Wick into the mix.
For the most part, it’s fairly successful in the action part of the formula. I think what is lacking here is script-based.
Note that I’m not saying the film is bad; I’m simply saying that they concentrate a lot on the action, and the interplay between the all-female ensemble, more than they do critical story points.
And let’s be honest, in this regard: The 355 is a veritable box-checking exercise. We’ve got a CIA agent, an MI6 agent, German Intelligence, Chinese Intelligence, and a Latin American Intelligence psychologist (NOT a field agent).
And, as they all bring a key element to the table in terms of accomplishing the mission, no one country is more important than the other (which may or may not help at the box office).
As I remarked earlier, the cast is pretty stacked, with Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Diane Kruger, Penelope Cruz, and Bingbing Fan comprising the team, and their chemistry works pretty well throughout. Sebastian Stan, Jason Flemyng, and Edgar Ramirez feature opposite the ladies in spots around the film, though Ramirez feels a bit underused, and Stan’s arc is inevitable and predictable.
The almost-obligatory romantic angle also feels a bit undercooked.
The real test for the film, though? I watched with my wife, who’s not really an action movie buff, per se, but who enjoyed it, and specifically commented on the fact the all-female crew didn’t obsess over the fact that they were, in fact, an all-female team. They made a couple snide comments about specific men, as opposed to men in general, but that’s about it.
In other words, it’s not a man-bashing film, but more a true “girl-power” (her words) effort.
Which, given some people’s obsession with the topic (have you seen the YouTube channels fixated on the “M-SHE-U” and the “D-SHE-U” etc…? Ugh. So angry all the time), is probably a good thing.
Overall, The 355 is a solid action offering from Universal, but doesn’t quite rise to the levels of MI or John Wick.
A sequel could come of this, but the filmmakers wisely left out any overt storylines and failed to include any credit “stingers” that would indicate that was their intention, and so the film satisfies as a stand-alone effort without baiting the audience as more an introduction to a pre-planned franchise.
The 355 opens nationwide on January 7.
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