Mel Gibson drops in from time to time in this predictable throwback thriller from Mark Neveldine.
There is absolutely no need to brush up on geopolitics for Mark Neveldine’s macho thriller “Panama,” which might be a blessing: This over-plotted yet utterly predictable throwback is set in the waning days of Manuel Noriega’s presidency, when sorting out the C.I.A.’s allegiances in Central America was trickier than playing three-card monte. The movie is more interested in resurrecting the spirit of action flicks from the late 1980s, a time when men were brutes, women were pawns or eye candy, and declarative assertions passed for dialogue. “Nothing more rock ‘n’ roll,” Mel Gibson’s Stark whoops here, “than taking out the bad guys for the red, white and blue!”
Gibson is only onscreen for a few scenes, abiding by the current career playbook used by actors of his generation who like an easy paycheck. The heavy lifting (and glowering, and killing) is done by Cole Hauser’s Becker, a dour Marine who, when not gunning people down, spends his time drinking on his wife’s grave. Once enlisted by Gibson’s character to acquire a Soviet helicopter for the Contras, Becker discovers to his grim satisfaction that he and the rebel fighters share a bottomless hunger for revenge — an appetite for destruction, one might say, particularly if that one person were the Contra leader in this movie who, while playing air guitar on a rifle, screams, “Welcome to the jungle!”
“Panama” should be more fun, given that Neveldine was a writer and director of the giddily moronic “Crank” films, which he made alongside Brian Taylor. (This movie was written by William Barber and Daniel Adams.) But it’s mostly a lot of manic editing and caffeinated camerawork, each trying and failing to juice some excitement out of Hauser’s dull performance. There is a slow-motion shot of a snow leopard, sound-tracked by hair metal. It is delivered without a lick of ironic wit.
Panama
Rated R for brutal fracas and repeated references to rape. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Google Play, Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
