David R. Walker

Canary Black

Director: Pierre Morel

Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Rupert Friend, Ben Miles, Goran Kostic, Saffron Burrows, Ray Stevenson

Running Time: 1 hour 41 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

After a swish opening sequence at a fancy apartment building in Tokyo, French director Pierre Morel’s new spy action film Canary Black moves to Zagreb, Croatia, whereby top CIA spy Avery Graves expertly played by British action star Kate Beckinsale (Van Helsing, Total Recall, Contraband) goes a deadly mission to save her kidnapped husband, the seemingly harmless David Brooks played by Rupert Friend (The Young Victoria, Pride and Prejudice, Asteroid City).

Avery liaises with her handler at Zagreb CIA station, Jarvis Hedlund played by the late star Ray Stevenson (The Three Musketeers, Thor, Memory) as she tries to figure out which evil mastermind is behind the kidnapping of David and what on earth is on the encrypted file called Canary Black.

Matthew Kennedy’s refreshingly original gender reversal screenplay, make the woman the main action hero and the victim in this case is the muscular and handsome David Brooks. The villain is the duplicitous Croatian minister Konrad Bresnov played by Bosnian actor Goran Kostic (Taken, The Zookeeper’s Wife).

Naturally Bresnov seeks world domination and wants to use Canary Black which is a dangerous digital spyware to wipe out the superpowers technological capabilities.

As Avery blasts her way to find her supposed husband, she crosses paths with the deputy director of National security Nathan Evans played by Ben Miles (Napoleon, Red Joan, Woman in Gold) in a bizarre sequence in a swanky urban hotel.

Canary Black is a slick, medium budget action thriller with Kate Beckinsale proving that she is indeed the right woman for the job, as a merciless CIA operative who is trying to stop Canary Black and save her husband.

French director Pierre Morel who brought audiences the highly successful Taken films featuring Liam Neeson does a good job of creating an atmospheric action packed spy thriller set in a relatively obscure European city at night.

Kate Beckinsale channels her talents from the Underworld series and does a believable job as the tough as nails spy Avery Graves. Vivienne Westwood supermodel turned actress Saffron Burrows appears at the end of the film as the mysterious Elizabeth Mills pointing to the possibility of a sequel.

Canary Black is a standard action film with a unique gender reversal whereby this time the tough guy is a woman who fends off multiple male assailants to rescue her helpless husband from the grips of an evil megalomaniac.

Canary Black gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and is worth seeing as an unpretentious action film with no flashy cars, exotic locations or special gadgets. Just good old fashioned spy craft.

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