Aye Yer Bounty,
Man, Yer Bounty
Mutiny
Directed by Jean-François Richet
UK/USA 2026
UK Film Council
UK Cinema Release Print
Okay... this will probably be a very short review for Mutiny because, frankly, I don’t have that much to say about it. Other than to say, it mostly does what it says on the tin (with an obvious exception... see the end of the review) and it surpassed my expectations.
Now, hold on, that comes with a slight caveat because... well I’ve been rattling on about how nobody seems to know how to cut a good movie trailer and market the product over the last year or two and, yeah, this is no exception. I’m a shoe-in for pretty much any Jason Statham action movie but, once again, the trailer for this movie was so bad that, well, if I hadn’t been on holiday and actually had more time than usual to check this one out, I probably wouldn’t have. The trailer was that terrible that I almost gave it a steer.
But, yeah, this is exactly the kind of thing Jason Statham usually delivers the goods on and it's much better than I was expecting. This is an above average action vehicle for the gentleman in question and I really had a good time with this one.
So after setting up Statham’s ex-bobby character... who has become bodyguard to a man who is selling his family ship building company and elevated by his client, who has become his friend, as one of ‘the family’... the film does exactly what you think it will do and kills off the man he’s been protecting. Statham’s character manages to save himself but is framed for ‘the hit’. So he stows away on one of the company’s ships to find out what’s really going on.
What’s going on is the company is human trafficking and it’s up to him and an accidental replacement ‘ship’s mate’ played by Annabelle Wallis, to kill off as much of the crew that they can in order to defeat the evil captain played by Roland Møller. And that’s pretty much it, asides from an obvious epilogue you will definitely see coming but, hey, it’s a nice, tight little action thriller with likeable heroes and very well played bad guys (they should give Møller a hero action role at some point, I think he’d be well suited to it) with some cool stunts and plenty of the requisite violence these things use as their visual currency.
I have two slight problems with it asides from the person who cut the trailer. One is Annabelle Wallis. She does really well in this and pulls off some great action sequences... I just thought she was underused and that her role could have been levelled up with ‘The Stath’ a little more.
Secondly, for a film with this title, there’s no actual mutiny in it. I mean., at one point some Navy people try to deceive their commander very slightly (who already figured out the truth anyway) but absolutely no actual mutiny to be found... at least that I could see.
And that’s it. Other than those minor notes, I really enjoyed Mutiny and if you are a sucker for a decent Jason Statham action pic, this one delivers in spades. Not at all like the trailer makes out... just a well made action piece. Go see it.
