Crawl, Hurricane Heist, and now the action-thriller Force of Nature. Is this going to be the thing now? Just doing some random genre shit and setting it against the backdrop of a raging hurricane? Well, at least this one has Mel Gibson shooting at folks, I guess. But there’s already a great deal of controversy, and it doesn’t have anything to do with Gibson or co-star Emile Hirsch. Ok, not all of it is about them.
Force of Nature stars Gibson, Hirsch, and Kate Bosworth, all three in…well, not the best stages of their careers? Gibson has definitely bounced back but it’s been a very long time since Into the Wild and Superman Returns. Geezus, I had to pick my brain to remember Bosworth was once actually Lois Lane. Anyway, the film stars Gibson as a retired detective who teams up with his Bosworth’s doctor and Hirsch’s disgraced cop to battle a gang of thieves. At the same time they must escape their apartment building before a hurricane leaves the entire city flooded. This looks pretty dumb, but could be worth a watch if looking to flip the brain off for a spell.
So the push-back Force of Nature is getting has to do with it being set in Puerto Rico where over 4000 people died due to Hurricane Maria. It also doesn’t help that you have a bunch of “good” white people killing all those “bad” Puerto Ricans. Twitter has been lit up over the last week with complaints the movie is tone-deaf. I’ll wait and see it for myself before deciding, but the trailer ain’t pretty.
The film is directed by Michael Polish, known for smaller, quieter films such as Big Sur and The Astronaut Farmer. He’s also Bosworth’s husband, which explains their frequent collaborations.
If you aren’t offended by the presence of the controversial Gibson and Hirsch, Force of Nature hits VOD, Bluray, and DVD on June 30th.
I'm not Puerto Rican, but that #ForceOfNature movie is fucked up. Not only is it exploiting a recent event that killed thousands, with effects still felt today, it has racist elements and a white main cast. The least they could've done is cast a Puerto Rican lead actor
— Toge @VLR (@TogeReturns) May 19, 2020
Approximately 4,645 people died because of this hurricane. Approximately, because it was bad enough we don't even have exact numbers. People buried their dead in their backyards. People were without food, water, homes, electricity, for MONTHS.
This is not an okay movie to make.
— THE FUTURE IS BULLETPROOF (@pielisse007) May 18, 2020
