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Stars: Scott Eastwood, Kevin Durand, Famke Janssen, Mel Gibson, Tyrese Gibson
Director: David Hackl
Distributor: Lionsgate

“I assure you, he’s not a threat.”

In short, the son of Clint Eastwood plays a legit psychopath nicknamed, “D”, and has Mel Gibson as an eccentric over-the-phone psychiatrist. 

Tagged up and seemingly living under some form of house arrest as part of his parole, Scott Eastwood stars as Dylan Forrester, a reformed sociopath learning to live a more stable lifestyle by the means of both his medication and alarm notifications. All seems well and routine until D is in receipt of a letter informing him of his brother’s death, leading him to venture beyond his residency, however, he leaves behind an attempted murder in his trail.

Once landed on an island in the middle of nowhere for his brother’s wake, and having been surprised by a mystery man in his quarters, D finds himself faced with more surprises in the guise of a team of mercenaries led by Cole – a man of wit and charm – played by Kevin Durand. Whilst Cole’s intentions are unclear, D, with the aid of an increasingly drunk and somewhat neglectful Dr. Alderwood, on the phone, must fight back to not only win back the respect of his remaining family members, but to save their lives too.

Dangerous, to an extent, plays on the Die Hard formula. Which is never a bad thing because we all love Die Hard! In this instance, the audience has next to no knowledge of the character, D, though there certainly are assumptions to be made. Scott Eastwood, a man with a terrific physical build – shown to be training in his living quarters during the opening sequences – suggests he may have a military background or something within that realm of experience. The villains, however, know exactly who he is. Because of this, an interesting stand-off is erected in that the hero and villains have familiarity with one another, but the viewing audience have next to no clue! With multiple references made by family members re D’s past and how he ended up with his mental health conditions, there are strong suggestions that something of a grotesque and deadly nature, possibly inhumane, had occurred at some point.

As Dangerous progresses, Scott Eastwood gradually sounds more and more like his father. A sugar-free Clint Eastwood, essentially. Many of his lines, and especially one liners, are pronounced in a carbon copy manner at times. Of course, this can either please audiences or have them completely failing to take any of the content seriously. In aiding the latter, there are multiple instances where Scott adds a fine element of humour now and again, thus ultimately establishing an inconsistent tone. And as fun as Gibbo is as the stupidly neglectful telephone doctor, completely unaware of the true severity of situations, his comedic notions further the inconsistency in both the tone and generally taking the film seriously. That aside, both Eastwood and Durand take great strides as hero and villain. They’re a great oppositional pair at times.

Ultimately, as an action film, Dangerous is somewhat of a wild ride, even if there are inconsistencies. Again, following the Die Hard formula is always fun, but beyond that, this film displays and presents an array of good quality action, and even the odd shock moment. The minimal usage of Famke Janssen as the FBI Agent in pursuit of D is a shame, though with the intentions of having D’s background somewhat hush hush, it is logical to shadow her character to an extent, as she would obviously be profiling him.

Though far from elite level action, David Hackl’s Dangerous is a terrific 90-something-minute action romp, even if it will probably do better on home video than it will on the big screen.

Dangerous is in US theatres and On Demand from 5th November. Many thanks to both DDA and Lionsgate for the plreasure of this film.

3 Stars

Dom.

For John.

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This article’s featured image: By Source, Lionsgate, Fair Use https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3876910/mediaviewer/rm4262524417/