It would be entirely reasonable to look at nothing more than the cast and premise of 2016’s sci-fi mystery thriller Criminal and expect a high concept roller-coaster that maximizes the raft of talent at its disposal to break through and secure success and acclaim.
After all, the cast features Academy Award winners Gary Oldman, Kevin Costner, and Tommy Lee Jones, A-list superstars Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot, ass-kicking action icon Scott Adkins, while even the rest of the roster is packed with recognizable names and faces like Man of Steel‘s Antje Traue, Alice Eve, Michael Pitt, and Jordi Mollà.
Throw in an intriguing storyline that finds Reynolds’ CIA agent being killed before completing a mission with the potential to save the world, only for an experimental procedure being put in place to save the day that sees his memories transplanted into the brain of Costner’s death row inmate, and there was no reason why it couldn’t deliver the goods.
Instead, Criminal tanked at the box office after earning less than $40 million on a $31 million budget, was shunned by critics and dismissed by crowds after netting respective Rotten Tomatoes scores of just 29 and 47 percent, while it’s been almost entirely forgotten about despite releasing only seven years ago.
Of course, it’s streaming to the rescue once again, with the interminable misfire currently capturing imaginations on the Starz global charts, per FlixPatrol. The star power is enough to generate curiosity, but excitement is nowhere to be found at any point from start to finish.