Film Review – Canary Black

In 2008, director Pierre Morel struck gold with “Taken.” He created a lean, mean actioner that didn’t waste time on distractions, and the feature’s enormous success helped to launch his career. However, Morel has been making basically the same kind of movie ever since (including “The Gunman,” “Peppermint,” and the 2023 bomb, “Freelance”), and he returns to old business in “Canary Black,” which is yet another tale of a character with a particular set of skills facing direct threats and physical challenges in a spy game-type of world. It’s Kate Beckinsale’s turn to command a breathless thriller, but the screenplay (credited to Matthew Kennedy) holds no surprises, and Morel’s command of visual hits is limited to the same old stuff in the picture. “Canary Black” certainly isn’t snoozy, but it’s too glossy and routine to inspire excitement. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com