Just picture it. It is a Friday night. You get home from work. It has been a long day and maybe even a long week. You want to watch something but not something that will make you think too hard. Not something that you have to concentrate on 100%. You turn on NETFLIX and are scrolling through it - trying to find something to watch. Maybe with a glass of wine and popcorn. Well, I have the perfect movie for you to click play on that will check all of these boxes. That is the recently released movie on Netflix called Mission Cross.
*Now as per usual with any review I write, I will not be including any spoilers in this review.*
Quick synopsis of Mission Cross: A detective discovers her husband's secret past and the fact that he used to be a special forces officer and go on top secret missions. Together, they investigate a case once the secret is out.
I knew I wanted to check this movie out once the trailer came out in June. It looked like a good action-comedy movie to pass the time. I think it lived up to my expectations. I just wanted a fun drama to watch and kill 2 hours. I am not a big movie watcher but once in a while I will check a movie out. There were some great things about this movie and others I wish were different. We will dig into that all when we get into the review part of this review. OVERALL - I think this is a decent movie where you get the best of both worlds. If you want a comedy movie, you can watch this. If you want an action movie, it will also satisfy that need.
WHAT I LOVED ABOUT THIS MOVIE
THE LEAD COUPLE - I thought the lead couple worked well together. I thought when they were on screen together, they worked well together and had good chemistry. They bantered well together and the comedy between them was great. These are 2 veteran actor/actress so, of course, their acting was great in the movie as well.
THE ACTION - The action scenes were great in this movie. If you want an action movie, this will deliver. You got car chases. You got fight scenes. You got shootouts with all sorts of weapons. You have an epic ending where the leads are storming a huge bunker, and they have a lot of action scenes within that sequence. I think the great cinematography elevated the action scenes as well. The action scenes were fun to watch and were a great addition to the movie. Also, it was great to see not only the men doing action scenes but also the female characters did their fair share in the action scenes.
THE COMEDY - While not all of the comedy worked for me which I explain below, other parts of the comedy was great and made me laugh. I think the lead couple had some great comedy between them. The highlight for the comedy though were the female leads' cop team. They were so fun to watch, and I laughed a lot with their characters.
GOOD CINEMATOGRAPHY - This movie was shot well. You got some beautiful landscape shots and from the air camera views. As I said the action scenes looked so good because the cinematography was great and elevated the action scenes.
THE SIDE CHARACTERS - The three cops on her team were the best. They brought a lot of the comedy. They also just had a great relationship with not only the female lead (their boss) but also her husband. I loved seeing them interact with each other and the leads on screen. They probably one of the best things about this movie. The memorable scenes for me that they had and were probably some of the best comedy in the movie was the scene in the interrogation room where they were discussing the female lead's husband possibly having an affair, not knowing the female lead was on the other side of the glass. That entire scene and the aftermath were great comedic parts. The other memorable funny scene was the female lead calling one of them and he had to pretend she was his ex-wife to relay information to her because they were being raided by the military. Just comedic gold FOR SURE! I love when these actors go all in on the comedy scenes and don't shy away from doing this type of comedy.
OLD CONCEPT BUT STILL GOOD - Now this plot is nothing new. We got a married couple. One partner has a secret that the other finds out about. She happens to find out her husband used to be in the special forces. She is a kick-ass police officer in her own right. She is not a damsel in distress at all. Think like a mix between Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Rush Hour and I think you got this. We, of course, have a main character be revealed as the bad guy. We have side characters that are the comedic relief. Nothing about this concept and plot is new. Especially if you have watched a lot of the comedy/action movies in the past 20-30 years. It is still a fun movie to watch though. Just don't expect it to change your life or anything. It is a fun movie to turn on and relax after a long day.
NICE TO SEE OLDER ACTORS/ACTRESSES AS LEADS - I LOVED seeing Hwang Jung Min and Yeom Jung Ah in these roles. They worked well together. They had a fun chemistry. They were these badass characters which made them a badass couple together. I loved seeing older characters and an older couple kick ass on screen and do it well. ACTUALLY, most of the cast were older actors and actresses. I don't think anyone in the cast was younger than 30 and most of the cast was probably in mid to high 30s and up. That was sort of refreshing to me. It was fun seeing all of these older actors and actresses have these action scenes or fight against each other while also pulling off some fun comedy.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER
PARTS OF THE COMEDY DIDN'T WORK FOR ME - Other parts of the comedy did not work for me. If you guys know anything about me, comedy sometimes doesn't work for me. ESPECIALLY if the comedy is bathroom humor and/or slapstick. This movie had both of that sort of comedy in it. So, those jokes just were not my cup of tea. Other jokes made me laugh and were great which I discussed above.
WANTED TO SEE THE COUPLE WORK TOGETHER MORE - A LOT of the movie is the main couple apart. Either it is the wife investigating and tailing her husband. Or she is investigating her police case. It is her husband being the stay-at-home husband or secretly investigating his case. We have a lot of scenes of him working with his female ex colleague whom his wife thinks he is having an affair with. Then at the very end they team up and are this badass couple. I wanted more of that team-up. I wanted them to investigate this together. I wanted them to fight more together. When the wife found out about her husbands' secret past life, they didn't even really have a conversation to discuss that. The pacing was off for this movie.
NOT MUCH DEPTH IN STORY - Maybe it was because they needed to fit everything into 2 hours. I just think none of the story went into much depth. They just threw story at us but never gave context. So, we got a surface level reason on why the husband left his secret job. We got the surface level montage of scenes of him getting back into the secret job life and investigating. They never went into much depth with the investigation part of the movie. They introduced the crime being military related but never went into depth about that. We got surface level resolution and ending to the movie. Everything about this movie seemed like a light, not in depth, easy to turn your brain off comedy/action movie. Don't expect anything groundbreaking or mind blowing. Not every movie needs to be that though.
A LITTLE PREDICTABLE - I mean if you have seen an action comedy in the last 20 years, you have seen this movie. We got a predictable person turning out the be the bad guy. We have a saving scene. We have an action sequence. We have banter and comedy against characters. This movie was a gathering of all of the comedy action movie tropes from the last 20 years. That isn't a bad thing but don't expect anything new with the story/plot of this movie.
SLOW AT PARTS - Even though it seemed really short, it did drag in some parts. I think it was because I wanted more screentime with the lead couple together and working together. When they weren't together, it dragged a bit. Maybe it was also because so much of the story did not go into much depth so, maybe I needed more context with things or wanted more depth with some story points but since it was all superficial, it seemed slow, or nothing was going on. Everything seemed to happen the end of the movie.
THAT IS MY REVIEW OF MISSION CROSS!
RATING: Mission Cross - 8.0/10 (NETFLIX)
Did you watch Mission Cross?
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