Enjoyable nonsense
Summary
I can’t pretend I didn’t enjoy G20 as it did exactly what it promised with Viola Davis and Anthony Starr stealing the show in a throwback to old school Die Hard clones. There isn’t much that’s memorable about the action or script, but there are some fun moments; it’s basically Air Force One Meets Olympus Has Fallen, but not as good as either. What is it about streaming movies that are mostly just… meh?
Plot: Terrorists take over the G20 summit with President Sutton, bringing her governing and military experience to defend her family, company, and the world.
Review: I’ve always been a sucker for Die Hard clones, and I was especially interested in G20 just to see Anthony Starr on villain duties. Anyone who has seen The Boys knows how well he can play a psychopath, and he doesn’t disappoint here. Hilariously his plan is to crash the world stock markets to make him and his buddies richer; how ridiculous, as if that would ever happen… Oh.
Anyway, G20 is like Air Force One in the cheese territory with a few unintentionally funny moments.
Viola Davis plays President Danielle Sutton, a former soldier who ends up on the cover of a magazine carrying a rescued girl from the rubble. Pretty much everyone doubts her plans to help people in Africa, so she goes there for the G20 meeting to discuss it with world leaders. Little does she know Rutledge (Starr) and his goons are waiting to take them all hostage.
With her military background Sutton knows how to take care of herself and fights against Rutledge’s scheme to save the world. Fair play to Davis who does her own stunts, and she clearly trained for the role. I liked her character even if the over sincerity of the script provides a few snickers.
It was refreshing to see Anthony Anderson in a more dramatic role as I’ve always been used to seeing him in more comedic fare.
On the action front we get a few fight scenes, explosions and shoot-outs and things are well paced for the most part.
The idea of deepfakes and crypto currencies brings this throwback into the modern age which gives us something at least a little new considering the rest of the film is rehashed from other, better films.
I knew at some point someone was going to reference Black Panther and the script didn’t disappoint there with arguably my favourite line of the movie. I wish there were a few more one-liners as that’s the only line I remember from the film.
Overall, G20 is a fun throwback to the Die Hard clones of old; it doesn’t always work but Viola Davis makes for an appealing lead with Anthony Starr stealing the show as the villain. The action isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, but for a streaming movie this passes the time.