Kate Beckinsale long ago established her badass cred through the Underworld flicks and others in the genre, making her someone whose movies I will always flock to. But if I’m being perfectly honest, it’s been diminishing returns for a while with forgettable actioners such as Jolt and Canary Black. Her latest, Wildcat, falls into the English action-heist category, and while it emulates the Cockney vernacular and mix of comedy similar to the works of Guy Ritchie, it’s a sloppy attempt that wastes the talents of Beckinsale and her co-stars.
Further emulating the Ritchie style, Wildcat introduces a number of competing storylines populated with motormouthed British gangsters. All of these story threads move quickly, with writer Dominic Burns and director James Nunn zipping around at such a pace that everything starts to blur together. The film centers on Ada, an elite Black Ops agent and the titular “Wildcat”. When we meet her, she’s involved in a years-long relationship with Roman (Lewis Tan), another ex-military officer who she runs heists with. She wants to start a family, he thinks their work is too dangerous for that, so they split up. But years later, they are thrust back together when Ada’s daughter, Charlotte (Isabelle Moxley), gets kidnapped. Ada’s bumbling brother Edward (Rasmus Hardiker) ripped off the top crimelord, Frasier Mahoney (Charles Dance), and he wants payback.
To Wildcat‘s credit, it doesn’t dick around and gets the ball rolling pretty quick. Ada and Roman recruit their old pal Curtis (Bailey Patrick) to join them in a plot to steal from another dangerous villain, Christina Vine (Alice Krige), in order to pay back Mahoney. Of course, it all goes pear-shaped. The crew is split up, there are double and even triple crosses, and not everyone is likely to survive this mixed-up bid for survival.
With Ada’s brother along for the ride and the team split up, Wildcat introduces a bunch of stock Ritchie-esque supporting characters into the mix. There are big lumbering goons, fast-talking weasels, etc., few leaving much of an impression. The one exception is Cia (Mathilde Warnier), Ada’s former boss and a deadly femme fatale who runs an exclusive, high-end sex club. Ada needs her help, and Cia ties her up into knots (literally) before she’ll agree to anything.
Sadly, Beckinsale’s seductive tete-a-tete opposite Warnier is perhaps her best scene in the film. On the action side, this is hardly Beckinsale’s best effort. The set pieces are stagey and generic, with Beckinsale largely hidden, probably to obscure the use of a stunt double. On the other hand, Tan’s scenes kick ass, which is unsurprising. The Mortal Kombat, Deadpool, and Cobra Kai vet is one of the best around, and he gets the film’s most brutal fight scene inside a car garage. Krige seems to be having the most fun she’s had since playing the Borg Queen, and it’s a genuine blast to see her as a total psycho. If only she had a bit more screen time to show it off.
This wouldn’t be so bad if Wildcat were funnier, or if we were given a reason to care about any of these characters. But it’s unclear that the filmmakers even knew what they wanted the film to be. For instance, we learn early on that London has exploded into total gang warfare, with the streets looking like football club battlefield. But it has almost nothing to do with the overall plot, so what’s the point? Should we be taking any of this stuff seriously? The stakes are high, but aren’t necessarily treated as such. Beckinsale and Tan are underserved by a predictable, ordinary action flick that fails to set itself apart.
Wildcat is available in theaters and digitally now from Aura Entertainment.
