Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Once upon a time, two hot, skilled assassins worked for a shadowy black-ops organization. Being hot and good at their jobs, they fell in love and wanted to start a family. But the government wouldn’t cut them loose. So they went on the run to live their lives and raise a family, only to be dragged back into the world of gunplay and spycraft when their old bosses and colleagues came looking for them. Of course you’ve heard this chestnut before: It’s the premise of a bajillion films and TV shows at this point about a couple that has to balance action hero derring-do with the mundanities of family life. “Shadow Force,” the latest entry in this much-vaunted subgenre (whose latest entry, “Back In Action,” came out only a few months ago), is just as anonymous and intangible as its name implies.
It’s a shame, too, because there’s an ostensible pedigree to work from—this is the latest from writer/director Joe Carnahan, who came up quickly in the early 2000s as one of the big new names in action thrillers (with films like “Narc” and “Smokin’ Aces”), only to stumble a bit with his “A-Team” remake and glide into network TV comforts as a director and EP on “The Blacklist.” He’s made some solid yarns since; “The Grey” is one of Neeson’s best, most contemplative thrillers, and even 2021’s “Copshop” is a devilishly grimy entry for him. Here, though, he feels in peak journeyman mode, lending only the tiniest dash of grit to what feels like the pilot to its own sloppy NBC procedural.
The film begins oh-so-profoundly with a quote from Paul Persall: “Our most basic instinct is not for survival but for family.” (Sounds like the kind of thing Dominic Toretto would have tattooed across his lower back.) From there, we’re introduced to Isaac (Omar Sy), who seems a good dad to his precocious five-year-old son Ky (Jahleel Kamara). They take baths, he teaches him French, he tells him not to swear. They bond over Lionel Richie’s syrupy ballad “Truly,” which Isaac listens to repeatedly in his hearing aids. But one day, when bank robbers hit up the branch he and Ky happen to be in, he takes off his hearing aids, tells Ky to close his eyes, and dispatches the robbers with ruthless efficiency.
Not that we needed to guess, but it’s clear Isaac had a much different life before his seemingly single dadhood. It’s then that Carnahan and co-writer Leon Chills throw a metric ton of side characters and clunky plot threads at us: turns out Isaac and his wife, Kyrah (Kerry Washington) were central members of an elite squad called Shadow Force, led by the unscrupulous Jack Cinder (Mark Strong, who can play these kinds of sneering villain roles in his sleep by now). When they split from the group, Kyrah made the painful decision to splinter off to hunt down their former teammates before they could kill their family. Now, Cinder is secretary general of the G7 or something, and sees this recent reappearance of Isaac as a chance to tie up loose ends and protect his cushy new position. So he collects the rest of the Shadow Force, “doubles the bounty” on them (whatever that even means), and forces his colleagues to chase them down.
If it sounds like I’m being vague with the beat-by-beat mechanics, that’s because “Shadow Force” treats them just as cavalierly. Shot with EuropaCorp cheapness in a script so scattershot you practically see new location cards in every scene, Carnahan’s film plays so many of the familiar beats of this kind of story with frustrating dullness. You can guess each new plot turn three scenes before they happen, and the few surprises that do come mostly get you because they’re the kind of left-field swings you couldn’t possibly guess. The script is borderline incomprehensible; it’s a tale of a family protecting each other that spends little time establishing their actual bond before throwing them in the deep end. Side characters bob in and out with little fanfare, including a pair of Cinder’s lackeys who suddenly become so important to the story Carnahan expects you to care whether they live or die. (Same goes for Isaac and Kyrah’s former teammates turned assassins, whom the film seems to be setting up as mighty antagonists to be plucked off one by one, but seem reserved mostly for one cheap shootout on an island beach house.)
It doesn’t help, of course, that Sy and Washington barely have any chemistry, and neither have much with poor Kamara, the kind of irritating kid dragged into life-and-death situations (including being strapped into the secure trunk of a supercar that gets tumbled end over end; don’t worry, he’s fine) without batting an eye. The film banks a lot on you finding this kid cute, but you spend more time wishing they’d put him into witness protection, especially when the movie stops dead in its tracks to gawk at the tot saying just the darndest things. For her part, Washington (who also serves as producer alongside Sterling K. Brown, who was initially tapped for the Sy role) taps far too deeply into mawkishness, anchoring the dynamic in a lot of weepy speeches about family which undermine what could have been a fun “alpha-mom” kind of role.
What few diversions to be found in “Shadow Force” mostly come from Sy, who relishes the chance to play leading man in an American action film; he puts so many of his action chops he showcased in last year’s straight-to-Peacock remake of “The Killer” to good use, and he carries an effortless charm even in the softer scenes with his boy. Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Method Man also show up to occasionally divert our attention as Auntie and Unc, two fellow spies vaguely connected to our heroes (and whom they seem to trust). They have such good comic rapport, and clearly ad-libbed their better jokes amid the dross of the script, that I kinda wish I was watching their movie instead.
Sure, the script sucks and the characters are bad, but I’d almost forgive that if the action was any good. Sadly, Carnahan seems to have lost his touch, with a few glimmers of intense fight choreography obscured by dim lighting or scattershot editing. One sequence, in which the family fights off baddies on motorcycles and tricked-out semis in their souped-up supercar, is a refreshing flurry of fog and flares. But that’s over and done far too soon, and it’s back to additional bickering from Sy and Washington, and more impotent glowering from Strong. The sitcommy scenes of family arguments and droll wisecracks clash with the grimmer aesthetic Carnahan wants to give it, so “Shadow Force” feels like an action film serving two masters and fulfilling neither’s needs. It’s laughable, all right, but in all the wrong ways.
