When
Yanks think of Brits, we often form a mental picture of Benny Hill or Are You Being Served?, but some of the
world’s fiercest warfighters are in the Queen’s service. Sometimes their own
lingo doesn’t do them any PR favors. The Special Boat Service sounds pretty
pedestrian, but they hang with the U.S. Navy SEALs any day. In fact, John Stratton
is so frequently paired up with a SEAL colleague, he also becomes a friend. His
death leaves the British commando seething for vengeance, but he will focus on foiling
a catastrophic terrorist plot in Simon West’s Stratton (trailer
here) which opens this Friday in Los Angeles.
Stratton
and his soon-to-be late SEAL pal Marty Sturgess were supposed to swim in and
out of an Iranian germ warfare facility, safely securing their double-secret
super-strain, but the mission specs are wrong at nearly every juncture. It is
like someone knew they were coming. That would be Grigory Barovsky, a rogue Russian,
previously assumed dead. He massacred the Iranians and framed the Brits and
Yanks. Stratton just barely escaped, but Sturgess is not so lucky.
Naturally,
his next SEAL partner, Hank Monroe, happens to be an old friend of Sturgess and
rather hot-headed in the way we Yanks get. However, Stratton can keep him
focused on the immediate tasks, like recovering the ultra-lethal pathogen,
ferreting out the traitor in MI6, and generally killing a bunch of terrorist
scum.
Stratton is a highly
appealing throwback to 1980s action movies, like The Delta Force, Navy SEALs, and Ffolkes, while also nicely representing the “Special Relationship”
between the U.S. and UK with Stratton’s partnership with a Navy SEAL comrade.
Dominic Cooper is impressively steely as Stratton. He definitely overshadows
Austin Stowell’s Monroe, but the film is titled after his character, so what do
you expect? Regardless, Stowell has a gee whiz earnestness that suits the film
and character well enough. However, the best developed relationship and
strongest chemistry is that shared by Cooper and Gemma Chan as the by-the-book mission
controller, Aggy.
Admittedly,
Thomas Kretschmann looks a little weary playing the villainous Barovsky, which
is why the German reporter in A Taxi Driver was such a nice change of pace for him. Connie Nielsen and Derek
Jacobi add some class to the joint as Stratton’s M-like boss Sumner and his
Derek Jacobi-like dad Ross.
There
are several neatly executed meat-and-potatoes action scenes and a number of
Middle Eastern terrorists get their comeuppance in a manner worthy of 24. West is an action veteran, who
clearly helms with a steady hand. There is nothing pretentious or sucker-punchy
about the film, which is why it is such a breath of fresh air. Highly
recommended for action fans, Stratton opens
this Friday (1/5) in LA at the Arena CineLounge and also releases day-and-date
on iTunes.
