Nerdly » ‘Dirty Angels’ Review

16th Dec2024

‘Dirty Angels’ Review

by Jim Morazzini

Stars: Eva Green, George Iskandar, Maria Bakalova, Ruby Rose, Emily Bruni, Jojo T. Gibbs, Rona-Lee Shimon | Written by Martin Campbell, Alissa Sullivan Haggis, Jonas McCord | Directed by Martin Campbell

Martin Campbell’s Dirty Angels opens in Afghanistan in 2021. Jake (Eva Green; Nocebo, Dark Shadows) and her team are in a very bad spot. They’ve been captured and ISIS leader Amir (George Iskandar; Blank Bullet, Red Skies) has offered them a choice. He’s going to have her men join in when he has her stoned her to death. If they don’t, he’ll shoot civilians until they do. Considering the civilians were there for the stoning, I’d have let him shoot them.

In any case, the stoning is interrupted by the arrival of a rescue team. They manage to get Jake, but then come under fire and are forced to leave the rest of the team behind. As they fly off, she watches as Amir personally executes them.

We move to the present, where Amir and his men are storming a school for girls and taking the students hostage. Well most of them, he throws a few off the roof just to make sure the viewer gets the point that he’s really not a nice person. He demands a massive cash ransom and the release of a high-profile prisoner held by the government in return for the daughters of several diplomats and government officials. Apparently, ISIS and The Taliban don’t like each other any more than they like infidels, and he’s ready to start a civil war over it. As for the rest of the girls, they can serve as wives for his men. Did I mention he’s really not a nice guy?

And what of Jake? She’s trying to get the pilot who saved her ass court marshalled for cowardice. As you might guess, she’s distracted from that by the chance to take a new team in and get revenge on Amir. She soon finds herself in Pakistan with a crew whom she has so little regard for that she tells them team she doesn’t want to know their names and refers to them by their specialty.

So we have The Bomb (Maria Bakalova; The Apprentice, Bodies Bodies Bodies), Medic (Ruby Rose; John Wick: Chapter 2, SAS: Red Notice), Shooter (Emily Bruni; London’s Burning, A Christmas Carol) and Geek (Jojo T. Gibbs; Something from Tiffany’s, Twenties). The exception is their mechanic, Rocky (Rona-Lee Shimon; Sky, Black Lotus) who managed to get her name out before Jake’s outburst. The script by Campbell (Goldeneye, Casino Royale), Alissa Sullivan Haggis (The Black Donnellys) and Jonas McCord (The Young Riders, Class of ’61) doesn’t seem much more interested in them either, they’re given almost no character development and are simply there to step up when the plot requires it.

The plot is similarly bare bones and familiar. An already risky mission goes sideways, there are betrayals, the heroes suffer early casualties that make it even more difficult so they improvise a new plan, you know the score. It’s all competently done, but nothing more. The action scenes we get have plenty of shooting and stuff blowing up but, with the exception of the final attack on Amir’s headquarters, lack any real spark or spectacle.

It’s not really fair to talk about the cast’s performances because, as I mentioned, they don’t have much to do. About the only actor who has anything to work with is George Iskandar. He gets to have fun playing Amir, a cartoonish villain who snarls ridiculous lines as between committing various atrocities and thoroughly overshadowing Dirty Angels’ bland band of heroines who are more like action figures than characters.

Dirty Angels is far from the worst mid-budget action film to come out this year, but that’s also about the best I can say for it. It’s a competently made, but uninspired effort that might pass the time if you’re not feeling fussy.