A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Wrecking Crew”. (2026, 2.5*, ’15’).
My Flickering Dreams colleague Emma Sewell (from Emma @ The Movies) absolutely loves this type of film…. and I always dread writing a review for a film like “The Wrecking Crew” since I know she will be “disappointed” with me!
I put this on as an ‘ironing film’ (as in, an undemanding film to stream while I am ironing my shirts!) and it fitted that bill. This was a pretty generic action film, but enhanced with some fabricated brotherly strife from the two beefcake stars, Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
Brothers James (Dave Bautista) and Jonny (Jason Momoa) Hale are reunited after the suspicious death of their father in a hit-and-run in Hawaii. Their dogged investigation leads them into a head-to-head conflict with the local Yakuza and local businessman Marcus Robichaux (Claes Bang).
Certification:
UK: ’15’; US: R. (The film has not been rated by the BBFC as it is an Amazon streaming only release, but I would estimate it to be a 15 due to the levels of violence and bad language.)
Talent:
Starring: Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa, Temuera Morrison, Morena Baccarin, Roimata Fox, Frankie Adams, Claes Bang, Jacob Batalon, Stephen Root, Miyavi, Lydia Peckham.
Directed by: Angel Manuel Soto.
Written by: Jonathan Tropper.
Running Time: 2h 4m.
Summary:
Positives:
- Fun banter between two brothers in conflict.
- Some genuinely funny dialogue that made me laugh.
Negatives:
- A ludicrous level of ‘stormtrooper aim syndrome’.
- Many of the action scenes require your suspension of belief to be chucked right out of the window.
- Some violence and gore that will be too much for some viewers.
- Runny, screamy, women without much to do.
Full Review of “The Wrecking Crew”:
No not that one!
No, this isn’t a remake of the 1968 Matt Helm adventure (starring Dean Martin and Elke Sommer and famously featured in “Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood” as the film watched by Margot Robbie’s Sharon Tate.) Instead, this is a pretty generic action/comedy/thriller that sees two estranged brothers, portrayed by those two kindly beefcakes Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa, forced to grudgingly work together in the interests of justice.
Funny dialogue.
Where the film does click is with some of the dialogue from Jonathan “The Adam Project” Tropper. Some of this plays off the physical appearance of our two stars. Some of my favourites:
- Marcus Robichaux (Claes Bang) to the Hale brothers: “You look like the Rock f***ed himself and had twins!”
- To James Hale (Bautista): “A guy who works at Pearl Harbor should know better than to f*** with the Japanese”.
- To Jacob Batalan’s fleeing Pika: “F*** you fat Jackie Chan!”.
- And in a line guaranteed to alienate the Brazilian audience: “Portuguese is just drunken Spanish!”
Safe to say that I did have a good giggle here and there. But you can see that the script has “f***” liberally distributed about it!
Extreme violence; terrible aim.
Once more in one of these action films we are subjected to lethal amounts of violence. Even one of the punches from Momoa or Bautista would have destroyed the target’s eye-sockets and put them in a British court and convicted on GBH charges. And that’s before Bautista goes psycho with a claw-hammer! (I guess my issue with this sort of thing is where a drunk guy on a night out thinks that he too can throw a similar punch without consequences).
But it is the uselessness of the attackers that is particularly ludicrous in this film. A helicopter attack on their car crossing a bridge breaks all bounds of disbelief suspension (it must be a disbelief suspension bridge, LOL). In other scenes towards the end of the film, HOARDS of Japanese martial arts experts wait their turn dutifully to be taken out by Dave Bautista. Utter drivel.
Women left to run and scream.
What’s also curious in this film is the role of the women. I was expecting Jonny’s on/off girlfriend Valentina (Morena Baccarin) to be a feisty ass-kicking individual. Ditto with James’s wife Leila (Roimata Fox) and Lani (Maia Kealoha) when released from their kidnap. But when push comes to shove their contribution to the battle is to quietly find there own way home! (“Do you need any help finding the way love?”. “No, we’ll be fine, I have google maps on my phone”.)
I also expected Robichaux’s wife Monica (Lydia Peckham) to play a bigger and more relevant role in the film, but again she is nothing more than cannon fodder.
It seems to be a curiously patriarchal movie-retrenching.
Summary Thoughts:
A generic action film with some more life in it than some. But the action scenes are ludicrously unrealistic.
By the way, if you are trying to recognise the Hawaii beach they used in the filming, don’t bother… although there are a few Hawaii drop-ins, the principal photography was done in New Zealand, just north of Auckland.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer for the film is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOt0E7v-Hu8.
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