You're my brother: Momoa and Batista released a comedy superhit

The ironic action movie "Dangerous Duo", aka "The Wrecking Crew", was released worldwide immediately online on Amazon Prime Video. Major American publications gave him high scores, and the duo of Dave Batista and Jason Momoa are boldly compared to the heroes of Lethal Weapon. Izvestia watched the film, which the largest market players have been fighting for the rights to since 2021, and states: This is the most energetic and vital release of January, and not only on online platforms. The details are in our review.

From Tweet to Prime Time

The story of the "Dangerous Duo" is not the most common example of "folk casting" in Hollywood. In August 2021, Jason Momoa announced on the James Corden show that he and Dave Batista were discussing creating a buddy movie in the spirit of Lethal Weapon. It was clear that they were great friends in real life, the two muscular stars of comic book blockbusters had never played a major role together before, and so they decided to try.

Batista's tweet about the project went viral, and MGM (later absorbed by Amazon) won the rights to the film in what is said to be a very aggressive bidding process.

Angel Manuel Soto, the director of The Blue Beetle, was hired as the director. And all these years, fans have been trying their wits and guesses on the forums about what the movie will be like. Momoa added fuel to the fire by telling everyone that their movie duet would be "just like yin-yang."

On January 15, the premiere was held in Times Square, and on the eve of the online release, the leading media unexpectedly gave this project such high marks that you can even go to the Oscars with them. The film had 85% freshness on the Rotten Tomatoes aggregator, but now the score has dropped slightly because smaller publications have released negative reviews.

SWAT team vs cop

The plot of the film is so simple that it's even embarrassing to tell. In Hawaii, two stepbrothers meet after a long-term quarrel. One lives here and ascetically serves as a Navy special forces instructor, the other works as an investigator on the continent, dresses like a biker and behaves like a complete scumbag. Their father, a private investigator, has just been killed, and the brothers decide to find the culprits. Among the participants in the conflict are the Japanese Yakuza, local gangsters, corrupt officials and businessmen.

But it's not the plot that's expected from such action games. The core here is the duet of Momoa and Batista, where Momoa is given the most advantageous role. He has the most striking appearance, absolutely Panicky. He has the sharpest lines, which not only have a record number of f-words per minute of screen time, but also a lot of politically incorrect jokes. About Portuguese, for example, he says that it's like Spanish, but drunk. He remembers John Cena and even Jean-Claude Van Damme in such terms that they will surely hiccup more than once in the coming days of millions of views. And how much bullying is reserved for the Yakuza, you just can't list. There's a ninja, and Naruto, and jokes about ritual tattoos — the complete set.

When Momoa and Batista are in the same frame, this carnival energy reaches an instant peak. And behind the jokes, which are really witty and flashy, an action game is launched, which costs all the $ 150 million that was spent on the project, and every last cent. Helicopters explode, cars jump on each other and turn over, all this at breakneck speed and very naturalistic, it is clear that computer graphics were used minimally. To make it look old-school, in the spirit of 80's references, they even put Phil Collins on the soundtrack here.

Special attention is paid to the choreography of the fights — they are made in the style of John Wick (even the same people staged the fights), when any objects are used, and the outcome of the fight can be decided by the most innocent-looking object. Martial arts, sword fighting, boxing — there is just enough of everything here so that you don't have time to get bored. These are emotions in their purest form that culminate when the brothers start beating each other up. The audience has been waiting for this scene, and it will not disappoint them, everything is very brutal, the alpha males will fight for a long time and cruelly.

At the same time, the film constantly makes fun of itself, which does it credit. For example, the wife of Batista's character is a child psychotherapist, and her communication with these thugs emphasizes their infantilism. It's touching, comical, and at the same time gives the characters the necessary vulnerability. This makes it easier for us to connect to them. And there are also a lot of quotes from classic action movies in the film to make cinephiles scream with delight. A separate bonus is the reconstruction of the famous scene from Park Chang—wook's "Oldboy," the one with the hammer, shot in one long take.

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Why was the movie only released online?

Here we can make a few guesses, although it is possible that Amazon is now biting its elbows, which did not allow the film to be rented normally. But you can look for logic. First of all, the film is too long. If you throw out everything except dialogue and action out of two hours, he wins, and there was no need to add drama here. He is not required in such a movie.

There is no bright villain here, but everything is some kind of trifle: a bad guy with a British accent, a bad guy with a Japanese accent, a bad guy with an official — there is no one to fight, no one to hate or fear. The brothers are so cool that all the attention is on them, and that's not good for movies.

For example, she plays Temuera Morrison in the movie, Boba Fett from one of the best Star Wars series. A serious actor. And the role is the most sketchy for him, he just gets bored in the frame. And we miss him at this moment.

And so it is with everyone. So it's not so much a movie in the proper sense of the word, but rather a Momoa and Batista show. It's perfect in terms of their numbers, both collaborative and solo, but beyond those numbers there's emptiness and boredom. It's not known how it would look in a movie theater, but at home you can go to the kitchen at these moments and slowly make a sandwich. Yes, perhaps, and eat it there, too, slowly. And then return to the screen for the moment of another excellent fight.

Prime did not offer an official translation into Russian, so amateur ones have already begun to appear on the Network. And, by the way, quite good ones.