Bullet Points: Security

I have made no secret of my belief that the action genre is unbelievably short on action stars at the moment. Maybe more so than in any time in the past 60 years. Each decade has had its stars who essentially made their ways into the homes of Americans and became almost mythic in the badassery but these past years have left us with mostly dramatic actors and old men taking roles in action films. That isn’t to say that the old men aren’t great. Van Damme, Stallone, Arnold, and Seagal have continued to be the faces of action even into their twilight years, and who is to say that Antonio Banderas can’t try his hand at an action revival?

Synopsis: An ex-special services veteran (Antonio Banderas), down on his luck and desperate for work, takes a job as a security guard at a run-down mall in a rough area of town. On his first night on the job, he opens the doors up to a distraught and desperate young girl who has escaped and fled from a hijacking of the Police motorcade that was transporting her to testify as a trial witness in a murder case. Hot on her heels is psychopathic hijacker (Ben Kingsley), alongside his resourceful henchmen, who will stop at nothing to extract and eliminate their witness.

• The Return of Cool: I’ve always felt that Banderas didn’t get as much credit for his work in the action genre as he deserves. His work in the Mariachi movies along with his role as Zorro more than makes up for all those dance movies he did. You can’t argue that Antonio always brings the sexiness to his roles and he doesn’t disappoint with his role in Security. Is he the best choice to play a war veteran at the age of 57? Probably not. But he’s damned cool and has gotten into remarkable shape for this one.
• I Got Kids: The beginning of the film shows Banderas’ Eddie Deacon looking for a job. He’s recently out of the military and obviously isn’t coping well with his reemergence into the private sector. He heads to a staffing agency and all but tells them that he’ll do anything for money. That would have prompted many a sexual advance in the 90’s but all an older Antonio ends up with is a job as a security guard in a mall.

• Get the Girl: A hooded and hidden group of gunmen ambush a “USA Marshalls” convoy with the idea of killing or capturing a young girl. It isn’t until later that we find out she is set to testify against a gang of bad dudes who are led by Sir Ben Kingsley (I assume he’s been knighted). The group is a random assortment of men and I don’t really remember why they’re so pissed off and so well armed. They have close to 25 guys with them, a couple with sniper rifles, many more with machine guns, and they have enough communication equipment to cut off all phone lines out of the shopping mall. For a crew of men so well armed and outfitted they certainly can’t shoot for shit!
• Die Hard in a Mall: This movie would have fit in perfectly in 1991. It is essentially Die Hard in a mall and I’m only saying that because I don’t want to go so far as to say it’s Home Alone in a mall. If the kid had gotten into the killing and started dropping bricks from the mezzanine then I would have given it the nod but as it happens Antonio and his supremely competent security guards who do the action while the kid hides. Speaking of the security guards, while a couple of them are more frightened at the situation, a few of the others turn into John Rambo and go toe-to-toe with a bunch of the hapless mercenaries.

• Le the Muscle: Every old evil bad British dude needs a tough guy to walk around with him and do his fighting for him. That guy in Security is Cung Le. He doesn’t get as much to do as he should have but when Cung is on screen you can definitely see that he needs to get a breakout role in some big-budget action movie soon. I like Cung much more as the bad guy because he’s able to kick the ever-loving crap out of someone without taking most of the beating (as most heroes do). His chase and fight scene with Antonio Banderas was intense and far more kickass than I expected. Neither man looked bad in it and it got extra points for continued attempts by both men to reach for the gun.

Get your ass out of the mall and read these Bonus Bullet Points:

• I’ve always said that playing dead is a viable option in a situation such as this.
• There are snipers….cue the impossible gunshot through the scope scene.
• Special shoutout to Liam McIntyre of Spartacus fame. I didn’t recognize him at all. He looks like he’s somehow five years younger than he was when he was on the Starz show.

The Verdict: Security‘s greatest attribute is that it doesn’t waste much time putting the hero in a position to have to fight for his life. It has a short runtime and a likeable star as the lead and the plot is simple enough where there aren’t many questions raised. The biggest problems, if I have to find some, are the villains not having much “meat on their bones” and the lack of empathy for the little girl. We really don’t know much about her other than she’s a little girl and they’re supposed to be protected. Kingsley was good with what he had to work with but it would have been nice for him to find Eddie’s information in the office and threaten his family to add a little more to his motivations. All in all, I enjoyed the movie for fast pace, the well-done action, and the return of Antonio to the genre that I hold so dear.