There has been a recent trend for small-scale action movies to cast household names in small roles just to sell the film. Agent Game follows this trend, this time with Mel Gibson. It's just as hollow and ridiculous as one would expect. Instead of focusing on developing a cohesive story, this film's messy script tries to go the non-linear route, but all that does is convolute a story that doesn't seem to get started. All in all, Agent Game feels like a cinematic puzzle that never gets put together, leaving a bunch of pieces sprinkled across the screen.
Agent Game is so convoluted and all over the place that it can be difficult to actually describe its plot. Directed by Grant S. Johnson from a script by Tyler W. Konney and Mike Langer, this disjointed spy thriller features three interconnected unraveling scenarios involving secret agents. Harris (Dermot Mulroney), Visser (Annie Ilonzeh), and Bill (Jason Isaacs) hold Omar (Barkhad Abdi) prisoner at their base and accuse him of terrorism. Miller (Katie Cassidy) and her team of troubled agents get more than they bargained for during a job, while Olsen (Mel Gibson) sits in his office controlling everything. As these different plotlines start to intertwine, it becomes clear no one will survive the night without a fight.
This film's main issue is that it doesn't take any time to try to develop its plot or characters. Instead, it jumps right into a non-linear structure that is so jarring it becomes frustrating to try and stay engaged. A story being told out of order works for many other films, but here it feels sloppy, like a cheap way to try to create mystery in a script that doesn't have any organically. The first 15 minutes contain multiple title cards that tell the viewer how many weeks we have just jumped back in time, which work to further complicate the story. Agent Game jumps into these scenarios without ever giving any backstory, making this movie more jarring than watching a film from the Marvel Cinematic Universe out of context.
Agent Game attempts to create a thrilling and compelling mystery, but it never invests enough time in any aspect of its script to be either. The film presents the audience with these disjointed set pieces that are confusing and don't really flow together. While watching, it's easy to expect everything will come together like a film like Memento would. However, even when the film's plot is explained in very wordy exposition, the plot still makes little sense. If this film were to take one aspect of its script and really flesh it out, it may have worked, but the final version feels like a childish attempt at a spy thriller.
Agent Game features several notable actors, who are all trying their best with the material they are given, but schlocky dialogue and characters with nonexistent personalities make it nearly impossible. The editing also severely hurts the film. Random exterior shots and other filler material make it feel like they were added afterward to fill up time because not enough footage was shot. The opening of this film also feels random, featuring arbitrary shots of Mel Gibson's face to the sound of gunshots. Gibson is only in the film for probably under 10 minutes, making his presence feel like a gimmick.
The one positive thing to be said about Agent Game is that it has some interesting commentary that it's trying to say about a government committing devious acts and then blaming it on foreigners or a foreign country. However, this is only at a surface level, and the film chooses cheesy scenes of gunplay over going deeper with any kind of commentary. Overall, Agent Game attempts to be an engaging spy mystery but instead ends up getting lost in its non-linear narrative and underdeveloped characters and themes.
Agent Game debuts in select theaters and VOD on April 8.