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Criminally Average

"Criminal" is a movie about converged identities. Instead of being a hard-knuckled thriller about identity crisis, "Criminal" suffers from a bout of identity theft. Last year, Ryan Reynolds and Ben Kingsley starred in the already forgotten thriller "Self\Less," where Kingsley's character's consciousness was transferred to Renyolds' character's body. Same concept appears in this film along with Reynolds.

The criminal of the title is Kevin Costner. He plays Jericho Stewert, which seems like a name out of the crazy movie guy handbook. He is a hardened convict, who acts and says things without much thought or care. He has to be detained with chains around his arms, hands and neck because no one is ever sure what he might do next.

Dr. Franks (Tommy Lee Jones) has selected Jericho to be the subject of one of his experiments. After a CIA agent is killed in the field, Jericho is to obtain his memories. The CIA chief, Quaker Wells (Gary Oldman), needs information that the slain operative obtained before he died. Even with a new set of memories, Jericho remains a difficult criminal, not eager to help the CIA.

A hunt for a computer hacker named the Dutchman (Michael Pitt) begins. There was a large sum of money stored in an undisclosed spot for the hacker, and Quaker must depend on Jericho to tell him where. Even with the new set of memories, Jericho can't produce information at the rapid pace that is needed. Quaker becomes impatient but Dr. Franks wants to see his experiment out.

Director Ariel Vromen, who last gave us the Michael Shannon film, "The Iceman", stages some fun action scenes and different set pieces but "Criminal" really holds no weight. Writers Douglas Cook and David Weisberg think they have given us a complex and original actioner but the entire film feels like a generic straight-to-DVD release. They couldn't even think of a clever title.

Costner hams it up as Jericho, growling at anyone who steps in his way. There are rarely consequences for his actions and if he sees something he wants he takes it. "Criminal" is just another routine action flick to be added to the actor's late career roster of movies.

Too many fine actors attached themselves to this film, and they will have forgotten they made this film as quickly as we will forgot we saw it. Costner and Oldman are in some kind of duel over who can chew the scenery harder and Gal Gadot is given a thankless wife role after holding her own against Batman and Superman.

Should you choose to see "Criminal," your enjoyment will largely be based on your need for some thoughtless action. It's not aggressively awful but utterly and instantly disposable. With blockbuster season quickly approaching, save your money for the better entertainment that is yet to come.