Kate Beckinsale can still bring it. Perhaps it’s just a stunt double doing most of the bringing, but unlike, say, fellow quinquagenarian Halle Berry, Ms. Beckinsale still makes a believable action star. The problem is she was just never a great actress. And the bigger problem in Canary Black is it being yet another action film with a twist so unbelievable it spoils the movie you weren’t enjoying. Oh yeah, she can still bring it, all right, but what if it needn’t have been brought?
Avery Graves (Beckinsale) is an agent so cool she can takeout a building full of Japanese bodyguards, collect the secret USB port, make an unholy mess, and come home unscathed without ever really having a plan. That’s quite a skill set. All done without consequences, of course. There are never any consequences if you steal from bad guys and kill them all in the process, doncha know?
The MacGuffin here is the Canary Black file – a blackmail list for every single government official. Wait – every single one can be blackmailed? Well, of course they can. And here’s the file, see? That’s all good and fun until somebody steals Avery’s husband (Rupert Friend). I’m always bugged in movies like this as to how some super evil has the goods on our hero/heroine; they know who he/she is; they know where he/she is and exactly how to pressure him/her into action. Gee, if only the Japanese had known such; they could have saved themselves a stiff body count.
This all begs the question – if the entity is all powerful and knows enough to blackmail superagent Graves, why do they need Graves or the Canary Black file at all? Why don’t they already have it? It’s like you aggravated the one person who can thwart your evil scheme when you just could have avoided that part altogether. Anyhoo, the deal is Graves will retrieve the unretrievable information capable of devastating entire governments, in exchange for her husband – all of which, apparently, can be done.
And if you think 
that’s unrealistic, wait until you get to the twist. My eyes rolled with such ferocity, I thought they might get stuck in the back of my head.
Well … you don’t watch Canary Black for the plot. You watch it to see Kate Beckinsale, or stunt double Beckinsale or CGI Beckinsale or some such foolishness, shoot out a 34th floor window and leap out of the building grabbing onto a drone capable of taking the weight of a human leaping out a window. Yeah, it’s cool. That’s why I’m giving the film more than one star. Don’t push it.
Canary Black seems like yet another in a long line of Netflix action films deemed not quite good enough to come out in theaters, which is a fairly low bar, unfortunately. I think the stunts and the stunt coordinator had fun with this material; I’m not sure anybody else did … including the audience.
On the run, a superagent named Graves
Who they blackmailed until she caves
Trading for her better half
Defied all office staff
This ain’t gonna be one of your favs
Rated R, 101 Minutes
Director: Pierre Morel
Writer: Matthew Kennedy
Genre: Saving the world, I think. Not sure
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Action junkies
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: If you didn’t like Heart of Stone, this won’t help
