Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse
MICHAEL B. JORDAN IN AMAZON’S WITHOUT REMORSEWithout Remorse sees another attempt at cashing in on the profitable name of Tom Clancy. This time, the character of John Kelly is brought to the big screen (well, the Amazon Prime screen) and there’s a hefty team of powerhouses behind this adaptation.
Michael B. Jordan plays Kelly, a US Navy Seal who goes on a ruthless mission of revenge after his pregnant wife (Lauren London) and his old team are assassinated. Jamie Bell, Guy Pearce and Jodie Turner-Smith are in on the mission also, each providing a different foil to Jordan’s no-holds-barred action man. Jordan proves a solid anchor and flexes his action chops in a way he hasn’t gotten to show us before. He works best when he’s butting horns with Bell’s CIA agent, Robert Ritter. Bell also leaves a memorable impression - he provides a gruff and rather blunt antagonistic presence in a play against type.
Director Stefano Sollima continues to improve upon his action sequences, elevating a couple of set pieces that could’ve fallen flat. One of the earliest scenes features a team of Russian hitmen breaking into Kelly’s home and murdering his wife - the ensuing fallout sees Kelly taking on the entire squad by himself. Sollima plays the action against the darkness of the room without ever losing anything to the blackness and also makes sure every bullet has an effect, which is something that many modern action films fail to do.
It’s a shame, however, that it is Taylor Sheridan and Will Staples’ script that has the most short fallings. With Sheridan cementing himself as one of the best screenwriters of the past decade, this is easily a notch down from his previous filmography. There’s a lack of originality to everything that plays out and any attempt to jar the viewer’s expectations is undercut by cashing in on years of action movie cliches. A sequence in Russia that sees Kelly and his team pinned down in a building by snipers is a great moment, but feels like it comes in at the second act mark - this ends up being the last action sequence of the whole film. The disgustingly poor post credits sequence is such world-building bait, one can only hope Sheridan had nothing to do with it.
The weaknesses of the script are saved primarily by Sollima and Jordan. Sollima takes the action sequences and elevates them to a level that saves the whole film from being generic. Jordan continues to impress with his choice of roles, although it’s his physicality rather than his emotional range here that makes an impact. Without Remorse is an enjoyable popcorn flick - it fails to generate any lasting impression, but serves as a good showcase of this generation's up and coming action stars and players.