Mutiny

• Title: Mutiny
• IMDb: link

Despite its overcomplicated setup to get him there, which also unfortunately requires a wrap on land to be tacked on after the natural conclusion of events, Mutiny is basically Jason Statham on a boat. Following the assassination of his employer (Ramon Tikaram), Cole Reed (Statham) sneaks onboard a cargo ship where he discovers a human smuggling ring and the reasons behind his friend’s death and the corrupt local authorities framing him for the crime.

Making sure to give the film even more Under Siege vibes, the script by J.P. Davis and Lindsay Michel also throws in a leggy blonde in Annabelle Wallis to play the ship’s third mate who is also targeted by the corrupt captain (Roland Møller) and crew when she too discovers the prisoners in the cargo hold. The script struggles to decide how much of a bad ass to make her character waffling between her ability to hold her own and also using her as a damsel in distress.

From that point on it’s really just a cat-and-mouse game of Cole staying one-step ahead of the baddies and killing off as many as he can while waiting for the Navy to arrive. The Naval scenes allow for Adrian Lester to be read, and comment on, Cole’s impressive file in another scene we’ve seen done better many times before.

Vastly simplifying the setup, by keeping Cole as a stowaway aboard the cargo ship either looking for truth about the operation or simply searching for someone who was taken, or even simply blundering into the situation, would solve a few of the film’s key problems. However, when you boil things down, Mutiny really is just a poor man’s Under Siege, although director Jean-François Richet does what he can to use the setting of the ship to create several different types of action sequences through narrow stairways, airducts, between narrow cargo containers, and on the ship’s bridge.

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