Mark Reviews Movies: DANGEROUS (2021)

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 4, 2021

A movie like Dangerous happens when the filmmakers clearly aren't on the same wavelength. The screenplay by Christopher Borrelli is obviously a comedy, as questionable as some of the material may be.

A man diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder, who was once a ruthless killer-for-hire, must try to protect himself, his family, and a group of family friends from an invading force of mercenaries. The catch is kind of clever: Dylan (Scott Eastwood)—or "D," as everyone calls him—is trying to change his ways, so as much as he may want to, he makes a concerted effort not to kill or unnecessarily wound any of the attackers.

It's not a great gag on its face or anything like that, but as the setup for some twisted humor and a slightly different take on an action hero, Borrelli has the kernel of a promising idea here. Whether director David Hackl is unaware of the obvious comedy in this material or is simply incapable of communicating a joke is irrelevant. The movie as it exists—as a tired and straightforward action story, with an overly gloomy look and attitude, as well as dryly humorless performances—comes across as a tonally inconsistent and mostly dreary affair.

D is on parole and under house arrest, following a more-than-a-decade prison sentence for a grisly murder. Going about his daily routine and taking what seems like an excessive amount of lithium, D wants to become a better man and eventually re-unite with his family, who have moved to a remote island off the coast of Washington state.

Just when he receives word that his brother has died, D meets an armed intruder in his apartment. He beats up the guy and leaves him hanging, alive, from the shower rod. The FBI agent (played by Famke Janssen, in a role so calculated to provide exposition and nothing else that it's unintentionally funny) who finally caught D years ago goes looking for him again. She finds his therapist (played by Mel Gibson, who's the only one here who seems aware this is supposed to be a comedy), who explains D has changed. The attempted murder for which the feds are hunting him, after all, is technically "progress."

Anyway, D ends up on that island for his brother's funeral at the inn the brother owned. Just about everyone's uncomfortable with his presence there, except for his sister-in-law Susan (Leanne Lapp) but especially his mother Linda (Brenda Bazinet), who keeps telling her son that he's not wanted and should leave with the consistency of a broken record. Soon enough, the local Sheriff (played by Tyrese Gibson) finds out D is wanted and detains him in an old bunker. Shortly after that, a team of mercenaries (Kevin Durand plays their leader) arrives on the island, looking for a secret the dead brother kept hidden and willing to kill anyone who gets in their way.

D does get in their way, of course, and from the way this character is written, matter-of-factly explaining to his young nephew (played by Atlee Smallman) that he doesn't care about or particularly understand anyone else's feelings, it's apparent the character is an awkward but self-aware variation on the typical action hero. He's a sociopath in the clinical sense, too, which on its face, at least, is a bit of a jab at the shoot-first-and-don't-bother-with-questions man-of-action that dominates this genre.

As played by Eastwood, though, D's anti-social ways come across as forced and uncomfortable—not only in terms of performance, but also in generally treating this character without the level of winking awareness that's clearly present in the script. The guy isn't a parody, a satirical take, or even a broad joke. He simply is the hero, and he's—also and equally—simply unwell from a psychological standpoint. If the character were played as a joke, some issues might arise from that, but this approach, with its straight-faced manner and unconvincing sincerity, is discomforting in its own ways. The movie tries to take D and his condition seriously, but the problem is that there's absolutely nothing worth taking seriously in this movie.

The plot, of course, amounts to a series of standoffs, fights, and shootouts between D and the intruders, who happen to have a history with him, as D treats everyone, ally and foe alike, with the same degree of disregard (That the other characters, even the supposedly likeable ones, have that same indifference is odd). There are scant, intermittent pieces of cleverness to the battle of wits (The inn, an old naval base, is like a fortress) and action in Dangerous. They can't overshadow the fact that something meant so clearly to be different is mostly a disposable bunch of the same-old.

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