Speaker #0right hello everyone and welcome to the concession stand here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reed and this is the review of prime video's new buddy cop action comedy The Wrecking Crew starring Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa. In this film they play two half-brothers, one a loose cannon cop played by Momoa and a disciplined Navy SEAL played by Dave Bautista. They must work together to unravel a conspiracy behind their father's murder in Hawaii. When I watch a film on streaming, whether it's a comedy or action, film or a science fiction film whatever the genre i always look at it from a different prism than i would of a theatrical release if you will it whether that's fair or unfair to the filmmakers or the film itself i really don't know but i kind of look at it differently because i feel if it was good enough it would be in the theaters you know so i kind of temper my expectations going in. It's just a screaming movie, something that you probably put on in the background while you're cooking or doing other chores around the house or putting it on late at night while you're in the bed just so you can fall asleep or something to that effect. That's the prism I look at screaming movies. Now, we've got some really great screaming movies, whether it's on Netflix, Prime Video. a peacock whatever there have been some good movies that you can look at and be like man they should have put that out in the theater you know it is it's that good of quality or that that good of a story or whatever the case may be when i first saw the trailer for the wrecking crew i like yep scrape the screen this is a this is a uh a prime video special that that's what i felt when i saw the trailer And then I sat down and watched the movie and I was wrong. This should have been in the theater. I should have been watching this movie with a bag of popcorn or bag of Twizzlers and a Coca-Cola surrounded by 50 to 60 other communal participants in the theater enjoying this film. This was a good movie. a really good movie and you know i kind of i kind of waited to review this because i wanted to let it sit a while like did i really see what i really saw you know now i'm not saying look for this towards the end of the year during oscar buzz or anything i'm not going that far with it but it's it's a really good movie that had no business being this good and granted It does contain two big stars with Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista. They are really good actors, been a part of blockbuster films themselves. They know how to keep you entertained. And so I shouldn't have been too shocked by that. But the dynamic between these two actors, and this isn't the first time they appeared on screen together. They were in Doom together, even though they didn't share too many scenes in that film. They were in that Apple TV Plus Series C, which was pretty good. And they were in that together. But they never were together until this film, you know, in this buddy cop format. And this is a genre that came to prominence in the late 80s or mid 80s to the 90s, where we saw a whole bunch of buddy cop films. You know, Lethal Weapon is like the godfather of. buddy cop films and so this is a genre or a sub-genre in action that i'm deeply fond of and we don't get a lot of them these days and so to revisit this sub-genre with these two bohemian of human beings and and they playing brothers nonetheless okay let's see how they bounce off of one another how how good the chemistry are uh between these two and it was perfect it was perfect at no point in this film did i feel they weren't actual blood brothers. They are brothers. And as a man that have a brother, had two, God rest his soul, but I know the dynamic between brothers. And that dynamic was truly there between these two, man. And the bickering, even with the bickering and the fight sequence they had with one another at the midway point of this film, you can still feel the love for one another even though it was a brutal fight it's very brutal but you can still see that they were holding back just a tad because they love their brothers you know and i i enjoyed that more than the action the story and everything else in this film it was the dynamic between these two they need to really partner up and be in more films together I'm not saying do The Wrecking Crew 2 again, even though I would support that. But, you know, just other films. These two are awesome together. I think they brought something a little extra out of each other. Because as much as I'm a big fan of both of these gentlemen, they are limited to a degree. Let's be real. You know, they aren't Shakespearean trained thespians. You never see You'll never see, well, I ain't going to say never because anything can happen, but it's very unlikely that you'll see Jason Momoa in King Lear or Dave Bautista in a Shakespearean Hamlet or whatever. You're not going to see all that. But they are good for what they do. They are very good at these type of films. But this is some of the best i've seen of them they they really brought something out of each other that caught me off guard man i i was so invested in these two i could have just watched them in a comedy the action was just land yeah that was just a cherry on top of the sundae this was just beautiful man to watch these two perform uh i was i was all in on that now with all that said yes the action was amazing this was a true throwback action movie i mean just just balls to the wall scrap in you're in for a ride and they really did not hold back on the action in this movie that's why that's part of the reason why i felt this should have been a theatrical release because the action you You know, like I said, streaming movies, you could tell they hold back, you know, budgetary wise and stuff like that. You're not going to get super exciting action sequences or fight sequences and things of that nature. You did here. You did. This was some of the best action I've seen in a while. You know, practical wise, hand to hand combat wise, shootout wise. It was very exciting, very fun. Very fun and brutal. Oh my God. They was brutal. These have some of the most brutal kills. i will say the last five to ten years that i can think on the top of my head in an action film but it was satisfyingly brutal it wasn't just brutal for brutal sake and it had to be brutal because you got these two big bohemian human beings you know you you can't just have them slapping somebody it's got those punches gotta land and it's gotta be with some force behind it And they did. I was. I was all in on that. This film is directed by Angel Manuel Soto, who previous film is Blue Beetle over there at DC, which is a film I wasn't mad at. I actually like Blue Beetle. It was one of the better DCEU films that came out in that little time capsule that we had the DCEU. I really like Blue Beetle and he did a good job with that film. But this, this, he graduated to one of the sought out to become one of the most sought out directors, you know, action directors. This film was initially going to be directed by David Lynch, Lynch, who, you know, the fall guy and the first John Wick film and Deadpool 2 and movies, those those films. But I think he got. Caught up. It was a scheduling thing. I think with the fall guy, the shoot ran too long. And they had to replace him. And they replaced him with Angel Noel Soto. And, you know, good on him. Good on him. It still felt like 87 North film, you know, as far as the action is concerned. One thing that I take away from this movie that I think about more. Then the action and the performances by Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa is the story. Now, the story is pretty basic. It's nothing that we haven't seen before. It's pretty, pretty standard for this type of action movie, the story that they're telling here. But I love the way this film was paced. I loved how the story unfolded. You know, it wasn't too many. Ex-marketing moments where, oh, here's the evidence, you know, they just stumbled upon things. No, they really did investigative work. They really did go out there and find clues and find witnesses and find this and find that. It was but it was paced well the way they did it. And I'm really impressed by how they pulled that off in the end. Good on him on that. uh the supporting cast was great you know you got uh jacob battle battle on who we know from the most recent spider-man films is ned this is a different this isn't ned that you're getting in this movie this is a different character altogether uh uh morena uh bacharan she plays the girlfriend she plays valentina the girlfriend of jason no more loved her in this. And then she. is awesome man she is so underrated you know the fact that we all love her character in Deadpool and how she was able to have chemistry with Ryan Reynolds and make that story work within a comic book movie was awesome and she did it here too you know it's not a similar character but there are similarities and The way she performed in this film worked within this film, you know, to use kind of the same tropes from Deadpool. But it wasn't a carbon copy type thing. But it was just moments where I felt like, and I can't remember her character's name in Deadpool. But it was similarities between that character and this character. Yet this character was more grounded than the more outlandish one that we got into. head pool um the one character and it is not the actor that i have a problem with it was the fact that this actor was cast in this film and it was so random you know he just felt so out of place and that's steven root who is awesome i love steven root but he plays a detective in here and it's like to be honest with you now that i'm thinking i think he's the only white man other in the village. But I think he's the only other white man in this movie. Everybody else is either Asian or Samoan. it's all Polynesian and everybody Stephen Root just sticks out like a sore thumb it it threw me off he didn't give a bad performance or anything like that but it was just he just stuck out you know looking at him on screen the biggest thing the best thing about this movie aside from the performance aside from the direction aside from the action is the comedy the comedy worked it worked perfectly i laughed so hard in this movie and i had no bit i wasn't expecting it to be that funny yeah i was expecting to see corny jokes or hear corny jokes and whatnot but this was funny this movie was super super funny and it worked it wasn't just comedy for comedy's sakes it was these characters this is who he is he's a a loose cannon and he doesn't take anything seriously that all that was set up and it worked it just worked the way jason beaumont played the cop because he was the funniest person in here dave batista had some funny moments as well but everything as far as the comedy is concerned i actually was like man this this movie has no business being this funny i mean funny to the point i had to pause the movie because i was i couldn't hear the next line you know it was that it was that type of funny and that's it's all subjective what's funny for me may not be funny for you but it just it it it got me it it truly got me now as much as i'm glowing about this movie i can't acknowledge that this movie does have issues and areas in those issues for me was number one some of the visual effects shots in this film were so bad there was a action sequence that took place on a bridge in a car chase that was so bad i'm like my god they couldn't do any i mean i'm talking gen one level special effects looking it was like y'all y'all spent a pretty penny on this movie you can see the money on the screen why why was it what happened with the special effects did y'all not budget that right i don't know what happened but it was just bad and it was a couple of moments that the cgi looked a little like but that scene in particular was so bad and what makes it so bad is the fact that it was an exciting scene. It was a cool action sequence, that car chase. But then you look at the visual effects shots that they cut to and hold on. They actually hold on it for a long period of time. I'm like, why are you showing this? Why are you forcing this down my throat? And it looks so bad. I was completely thrown. It took me a minute to get back into the scene, to re-engage in the film. The other bugaboo I have about the film was the villain. The villain of the film, you have two really. Well, there's a villain and there's an antagonist. And you know who the villain is immediately. It's not even, it's not even, I don't know. I don't even know how to describe it, but it's so blatant who the villain is. And when it's revealed towards the end. It's supposed to be this moment, but I knew this an hour and a half ago. Dude, you knew who the villain was, but they tried to disguise it and it just made it worse. As far as that is concerned, the main villain was so unbelievable. And I like that actor. I can't pronounce his name, but he played Dracula on the BBC. series that came out it was on netflix as well love that version of dracula i love his portrayal as dracula but he he's the villain in this film and it was it just didn't work it that villain the villain didn't work it unfortunately and it kind of it kind of tore the film apart having him as the villain but those are my only two bugaboos about the film other than that this is a watch man if you are a action junkie a buddy cop lover well this is the film for you man this is a true throwback to the 80s and 90s action films and i had a ball the wrecking crew gets a letter grade of a b Yeah, man, this was fire. They should have slapped this in somebody's AMC, Regal, Cinemark, wherever. This was a good time in the theater, man. Well, a good time at home, but it should have been in the theater. But that's my opinion. I would love to know yours. What did you think of The Wrecking Crew? Email the show, kbradiopodcast at gmail.com. You can also search for the show on all social media platforms. Just search for the KB Radio Network. Also, don't forget about YouTube. Subscribe to the KB Radio Network channel and like this video if you don't mind. Don't forget about the five stars, the reviews, and sharing this show. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, wherever, you are currently listening to The Concession Stand here on the KB Radio Network. Everybody, thank you for joining me for this review of The Wrecking Crew, which is currently on Prime Video. Want you all to know that I love you. Continue to love everyone. And until we speak again, you all be blessed.