Shadow Force review – Kerry Washington overacts in low-rent action slop

Director Joe Carnahan’s limply made thriller about an estranged couple of elite operatives is a lazy grab bag of exhaustingly familiar cliches

Maybe the new action movie Shadow Force is just deserts for film fans who complain when seemingly surefire big-screen hits such as Another Simple Favor debut as streaming-only releases. Shadow Force has a premise almost comically adherent to the fixations of so many big-budget streaming movies: elite operatives Kyrah (Kerry Washington) and Isaac (Omar Sy) must fight for their lives and their family when they defy the rules of their, yes, shadowy employers by falling in love and having a child. It shares familiar components including charismatic stars, spy action, domestic strife and semi-slapstick violence with projects such as Back in Action (Netflix), Role Play (Prime Video) and Ghosted (Apple TV+), among others. With director Joe Carnahan, it even has a once edgy stylist who used to deal in gritty grain, blown-out color and quick-cut aesthetics, now following in the footsteps of fellow 2000s-era action directors such as McG and Antoine Fuqua by eliminating all traces of color from his work – another streaming trademark. Somehow, it is nonetheless premiering in movie theaters.

This change of venue should be doing Shadow Force a great service. No action picture worth its salt will play better on a smaller screen. But blown up to theater size, Shadow Force doesn’t look any more epic or exciting. It’s working from such a greyish and muted color palette that when enemy combatants throw smoke bombs in order to conceal their attacks, you might find yourself thinking: what’s the difference, really? The whole movie looks like it’s waiting for smoke to clear.

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