Somehow Not 1998 Watch: Canary Black (2024)

Watched:  11/3/2024

Format:  Amazon Prime

Viewing:  First

Director:  Pierre Morel

I always intend to watch the espionage-ish movies I see go by on streaming services.  They're usually shot in Eastern Europe and with women with cool hair.  And let me tell you - Kate Beckinsale's hair is so cool in this movie, it's its own character.  This is not a complaint.

The basic pitch of Canary Black (2024) is that there's a MacGuffin, and if Kate Beckinsale doesn't get it and deliver it to the baddies, then they'll kill her poor husband, who is just a nice Doctors Without Borders doctor who doesn't know his globe-trotting wife is a bad-ass spy.  Avery agrees, and this sends the CIA after Avery Graves (Beckinsale), and now she's in a dilly of a pickle.  

The plot is mostly an excuse to give Beckinsale tons of opportunities to (a) look amazing in all black on the nighttime streets of Eastern-Europe-Land, and (b) kick so many people's asses that John Wick would raise a glass to her.

As an action movie, I think it succeeds on all the levels I set in the mid-90's.  Our hero is desperate but cool.  It doesn't engage in John Wick-style Gun-Fu, but is a step-child of the Bourne movies.  They're pretty clever about making sure you believe a pilates-level-athlete is taking out dude after dude.  There's ample martial-arts, more than a small amount of guns fired, and a stream of faceless Euro-villains dispatched - sometimes wearing ski-masks, because pale dudes with buzz cuts somehow don't all bleed together in your mind's eye.  

(I forgot to mention: the first scene sure is the first scene from Ghost in the Shell).  

The plot has a couple of pretty good twists, and I was willing to go along with them, even if, like, you have to buy that the CIA's server room is available off a common hallway accessible from an unlocked door on the roof (no datacenter would ever...!).  But *before* that you saw a cool thing with a giant drone, and, so, who cares?  

The movie feels very much like a throwback to a certain era.  Like, when Ronin came out, and we all liked that.  And maybe that's a good thing?  We can take a step backward to take a step forward.  If thinking about why the Bourne movies worked, or finding out we didn't actually lose our appetite for high-octane actioners with espionage and thriller elements is the discovery of late 2024, I won't be pissed.  I don't remember saying I was done with those movies back around 2002 when they dried up for superhero movies.

The characterization of Avery is surprising only in that the movie deeply implies her psych file declares her a sociopath or a clinical psychopath.  Ie: she really doesn't care if she injures people, and her motivations are likely more tied to what she does well more than any particular allegiance to America.   By the way, the very British Beckinsale does a pretty good American accent, but she's also doing a low register growl the whole time, and I did re-watch the first two minutes to try to figure out if she'd been dubbed over in ADR.  (I think they re-did some things for the opening, leading to a lot of cutting away while she delivered dialog)

(SPOILER:  I was a tad confused how Avery was mad at her husband  when she finds out he also had a secret background.  Seems like a bonding moment, but whatevs)

The movie is also clearly meant to be "Canary Black 1, the First Adventure of Avery Graves", setting up a network of people we'll see again, I have no doubt.  And my guess is that - as this was the #3 item watched on Amazon this weekend, they'll pick up a second installment.  And by that, I mean - this is an indie movie of sorts that was finished when it went to market and Amazon picked it up.  Personally, I find that inspiring and kind of cool.

I'll pull off the band-aid and say, yes, Kate Beckinsale is mostly famous in the US for being the very attractive lead in the Underworld movies about vampires vs werewolves, where she looks stunning in black.  And, boy howdy, that feature has not changed.  Good for her.  She's like 50 here, so if this series (which cameos Saffron Burrows) is the new home for hot middle-aged women, I'm here for it.  Well done, women over 45.

What I thought about a bit during the movie's relentless ass-kicking was that this is kind of what the guys who complain about movies going woke are *not* complaining about.  This is a strong, female lead who just goes about her business and only comments maybe twice about about being a woman - one of which is a pretty good bit with one of her bosses.  

Going forward, you might expect for the anti-woke mob to point to this for "why not do this?"  And, fair enough.  I enjoyed this film despite/ in favor of it's kinda nihilistic worldview.  But I also think there's room for stories by and for women where the ass-kicking is an allegory, not just ass-kicking.

We can have both, friends.  This is what makes America great.

If it sounds like I enjoyed this movie, I did.  It fits neatly in with stuff I'll happily watch on streaming like The Gray Man.  I still have a place in my heart for actioners that are self-serious while being goofy, for cool women in leather coats shooting up a Croatian city with a  machinegun, and bad guys to die just in time to save the world.  Sometimes that's what you need on a Saturday night.  You can recognize that the villain's plot is dumb as hell (you think no one will find an account with that much money dumped into it?).  You can recognize that a 110 lb. woman is likely not winning those hand-to-hand fights.  It's okay.  I also didn't think Arnie was really walking through a literal army of people in Commando and not getting shot.