I had honestly forgotten about “The Wrecking Crew” dropping on amazon Prime last week.
Luckily, my mom recommended it and reminded me in the same breath – so, that’s this week’s movie choice.
My favorite part of the action film was how the actors seemed fully invested in their portrayals and the dialogue was perfect for sibling relationships.
I mean, the action was pretty decent but nothing specifically stood out during the film for me.
I do have to warn you that it’s got several graphic kills and the language is coarse, but given the characters, it makes sense.
Crew is a buddy cop action comedy film directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Jonathan Tropper.
It stars Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista, Claes Bang, Temuera Morrison, Jacob Batalon, Frankie Adams, Miyavi, Roimata Fox, Stephen Root, Brian Keaulana, Lydia Peckham, and Morena Baccarin.
The movie is 122 minutes long and rated R for strong bloody violence, sexual material, pervasive language and some drug use.
Crew opens with private investigator Walter Hale (Keaulana) is killed in an apparent hit and run in Hawaii.
His sons and estranged half-brothers, U.S. Navy SEAL James (Bautista) and suspended police detective Jonny (Momoa) are informed of his passing.
Yakuza thugs attack Jonny at his Oklahoma home, believing that Walter had sent him a package.
Although initially ambivalent about Walter’s passing because of their non-existent relationship, Jonny decides to head to Hawaii to attend the funeral and investigate his death.
There, he is reunited with James and meets his wife Leila (Fox) and their children, as well as their cousin Nani (Adams) who works for longtime family friend Governor Peter Mahoe (Morrison).
Both Jonny and James investigate Walter’s death separately, converging on his ransacked apartment.
They work with Walter’s assistant Pika (Batalon) and find plans for a casino hidden in a surfboard.
With Nani’s help, they discover the casino is to be built on Hawaiian home lands, with the site already home to a small community.
Jonny and James infiltrate a party held at developer Marcus Robichaux’s (Bang) house.
Jonny discovers that Walter had been hired by both Marcus and his wife Monica (Peckahm) to investigate each other.
Coincidentally, James encounters yakuza leader Nakamura (Miyavi), whose shell company owns the vehicle involved in Walter’s death.
Jonny goes to meet Monica the next day but finds her dead; believing Marcus to be responsible, he returns to the house to confront him, but is beat up by Marcus’ security and locked up in jail.
After Jonny is released, James and Jonny fight each other to settle their differences, with Jonny revealing that he is motivated to investigate Walter’s death because he was unable to solve the murder of his own mother.
At the same time, James reveals that he sent Jonny away to save his life from the Syndicate, a local crime group that Jonny blames for his mother’s death, leading to their estrangement.
Jonny’s ex-girlfriend Valentina (Baccarin) calls him from Oklahoma, telling him that a package from Walter had arrived at his house.
After Valentina personally delivers the package to Hawaii, they find it contains a flash drive that acts as a security key to a digital wallet owned by Walter before they are attacked by more yakuza.
Overall, the film provides an action-packed backdrop for estranged brothers to come together again and the bonds of family overcoming a host of problems.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and fully recommend you catching it on Amazon Primes if you want to laugh at Momoa and Bautista acting like genuine siblings.
