Delayed Reaction: Beckett

Premise: A man stumbles onto a secret government plot when he crashes his car in a fatal accident.

 

Beckett is a propulsive man-on-the-run movie. The last thing you could call it is boring. John David Washington starts running about 10 minutes in and doesn't really stop until the credits roll. While Netflix didn't produce the movie, it's about as perfect a distillation of what Netflix wants out of a movie as possible. It's a thrill ride with big names that works on any screen size. In addition to Washington, it's got Alicia Vikander, Vicky Krieps, Boyd Holbrook, and a bunch of European actors I can't name. I definitely saw this movie only because of the names attached. I had no idea what the movie was.

 

There are two kinds of audiences for this movie: People who can turn off the part of their brain trying to understand the reach of this conspiracy and those who can't. I could not, so I spent a lot of this movie trying to make sense of what the hell was happening. How are these cops so good at tracking Washington? How do they even have the US Embassy in on this? How is Washington still standing after the beating he's been taking the whole time, considering that he's had no combat training that we know of? Like, normally the premise of this movie involves the cook on the ship turning out to be ex-special forces or whatever. Washington is just a guy. And if you can accept that some guy can get in this deep on accident and carry himself like peak Schwarzenegger or Stallone, then enjoy.

 

Personally, I was annoyed by the misleading casting. There are only a few minutes of Vikander early on and Krieps doesn't show up until deep into the movie. I like John David Washington but I'm not at "I'll watch a movie just because it has John David Washington" yet. He's good in the movie. It's a purely reactive performance. I'm not sure I know a single thing about his character. I just see how he reacts to all these situations.

 

Beckett is an empty calories movie that will quickly be forgotten after watching it but keeps you entertained the whole time. Just try not to think about it.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend