Lights Out, 2024.
Directed by Christian Sesma.
Starring Frank Grillo, Mekhi Phifer, Scott Adkins, Dermot Mulroney, Jaime King, Kevin Gage, Amaury Nolasco, Jessica Medina, JuJu Chan, Erica Peeples, Donald Cerrone, Paul Sloan, Mary Christina Brown, Justin Furstenfeld, Jailyn Rae, and Robert Laenen.
SYNOPSIS:
A drifting ex-soldier turns underground fighter with the help of a just released ex-con, pitting them both against a crime boss, corrupt cops and hired killers.
The filmmakers behind Frank Grillo-led action romp Lights Out seem to think that the deeper Duffy gets into a world of drug dealers and crooked cops while initially trying to make some cash as an underground fighter, the more drama will emerge. In actuality, it just becomes messy and bogged down by too many characters and subplots.
Directed by Christian Sesma (with Chad Law, Garry Charles, and Brandon Burrows all receiving writing credits), the film has a misguided ambition to be more than a story about a homeless PTSD-stricken military veteran working through his anger issues and drifting lifestyle through punching and kicking people for money. Even the fact that the man who first notices him and chooses to bring him into this world, functioning as his manager, Max (Mekhi Phifer), owes money to a local crime boss named Sage (Dermot Mulroney), fits the story and gives logical motivation for both characters.
However, there are also duplicitous undercover cops (Jamie King and Paul Sloan), physically abusive boyfriends stashing cash stolen from gangsters (Max’s sister and niece are also involved here), and an ever-expanding spiral of secondary characters up to no good in an over-encumbered narrative that forgets its original appeal. Watching Frank Grillo break bones (highlighted by x-ray visuals that feel blatantly plagiarized from a modern-day Mortal Kombat game) and process Afghanistan trauma (complete with the occasional cutaway to military shootouts) is mildly engaging, even if the filmmakers don’t necessarily know how to make any of these fights pop with stressful urgency.
Observing a bond developing between Duffy and Max is also moderately worthwhile. The further Lights Out strays from all of this, the more it begins to feel like several different subgenres of action movies crammed into one unwieldy experience. By the end of the first act, it’s no longer a movie about street fighting but rather a full-scale crime thriller where everyone becomes more endangered by the minute. There is no interest in fleshing out Duffy at the most basic level; after a while, his military PTSD begins to feel like an excuse to toss in some flashbacks of a different kind of violence rather than anything servicing the plot.
Scott Adkins also shows up as a veteran buddy immediately prepared to give Duffy a hand when his back is against the wall, quickly stealing the action and reminding that even when the filmmakers seem like they don’t know what they are doing, he has a sixth sense for how to elevate shoddy material with memorable brutality and kills. Without knowing anything about his character, Scott Adkins has that charisma and bonafide badass machismo to put viewers on his side and balletic physical movement to sell the combat.
Sadly, by that point, there are no reasons left to be invested in Lights Out, and TVs may have already been turned off. The more expansive and deeper it gets into the criminal underworld, the more convoluted and flat the story and action become. Serviceable violence is not enough to overcome that.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
