Shadow Force

Joe Carnahan’s remarkable 20-plus year run of quality filmmaking comes to an abrupt end with Shadow Force, a work so sloppy and anonymous that it barely feels like it was made by the writer/director of Narc, The Grey, and such entertaining recent efforts as Boss Level and Copshop.

Traces of Carnahan’s trademark wit shine through in the hilariously salty verbal exchanges between covert operatives Auntie (Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers) and Unc (Cliff “Method Man” Smith). But his films have consistently featured striking visual clarity and sharp edits, and in telling this tale of heroic rogue assassins being hunted down by their former colleagues, the production value bizarrely resembles that of a GEICO commercial.

This truly ugly looking film has no business being on the big screen, but also isn’t exactly something to invest one’s time in on VOD either. Carnahan’s shaky camerawork and slapdash editing during action sequences are a first for him, yet Shadow Force also proves a rare instance when Mark Strong — who plays the titular group’s evil leader Jack Cinder — embarrasses himself onscreen.

However, other than Randolph and Smith, no one manages to do much with Carnahan’s and co-writer Leon Chills’ wooden dialogue — certainly not the charisma-free Kerry Washington and a cool but miscast Omar Sy as the assassin lovers on the run with their no longer secret child (Jahleel Kamara, Nanny).

Here’s hoping this disposable mess winds up being the exception in the director’s otherwise excellent career, and that his next feature — the cop thriller RIP with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, slated for a November release on Netflix — actually resembles a Joe Carnahan film.

Grade: C-minus. Rated R. Now playing at Carolina Cinemark and Regal Biltmore Grande.

(Photo: Lionsgate)