The Wrecking Crew Review: Dave Bautista And Jason Momoa’s Charisma Vs. The Most Generic Action Movie Plot Is A Back-And-Forth Battle

Defying astronomy, Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa are two stars that have been orbiting one another for years. Over a decade ago, the former took the role of Drax The Destroyer in Guardians of The Galaxy after the latter turned down the chance to audition. Both are featured in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation, but they never get the opportunity to share a scene. The movie gods seemingly wanted their paths to cross, but I suppose the timing up until now wasn’t right.

Beyond the fact that both men are muscle-bound, well-respected and talented entertainers, they make a natural pair thanks to their respective energies. Bautista is the serious one (with a knack for being so serious that it turns around and becomes comedic), and Momoa offers chaos and dark unpredictability with a wide smile and an outstretched hand making devil horns. They make a perfect contrasting pair – which was has a potency so obvious that the GOTG star himself pitched the idea of a “Lethal Weapon type buddy cop movie” on social media back in 2021.

The end result of that ambition-driven post is Ángel Manuel Soto’s The Wrecking Crew, which is a true mixed back as far as the final product is concerned. Its success is driven by exactly what was predicted at the outset of the project, which is to say that the two stars mesh incredibly well on screen, and the story sets them up with a dynamic into which they viciously sink their teeth. The downside is that screenwriter Jonathan Tropper’s script is nothing more than a collection of dull-as-dirt cliches, resulting in a “mystery” that is a total snore, and the direction is sprinkled with head-scratching details and an immature sense of humor that was far more tolerable in Soto’s PG-13 blockbuster Blue Beetle than in this R-rated adventure.

Bautista and Momoa star as James and Jonny Hale: two estranged half-brothers who reunite in Hawaii following the news that their father Walter (Brian L. Keaulana) has been killed. The death is said to be the result of a hit and run, but Jonny, a tribal police officer in Oklahoma on suspension, is compelled to investigate after a crew of gangsters try to assassinate him in his home, and James, a US Navy Seal, stirs up trouble investigating the van that killed his dad. Their searches collide in Walter’s private investigator office where they meet Pika (Jacob Batalon), his tech-savvy assistant.

From there, the movie unfolds as a checklist of buddy movie tropes in both the search for answers and the hurdles encountered along the way – including a shady land development deal, off-shore bank accounts, an egotistical millionaire (Claes Bang), a no-nonsense Detective Sergeant (Stephen Root), kidnappings of loved ones, and more. There isn’t a single drop of originality to be found in the far-too-long 124 minute runtime.

Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa both do what they do best, but you wish they had better material work with.

Both stars have proven that they are capable of much better performances in much better movies, but they skate by in this one while wholly relying on the base level charms that each has used to become a household name. For example, there is latitude for the movie to get more into James’ military work and experience, with the film actually teasing his special skills in his introduction as he drills soldiers in underwater exercises, but him being a US Navy Seal is really just a means of A) seeing him look sharp in uniform, B) giving him an air of authority, and C) setting up that he knows his way around a gun/how to kick ass. Bautista has a history of really pushing himself as a performer, but here, the gig is coasting on a stern attitude that occasionally bubbles over into rage, and he gets the job done.

As the wild card to Bautista’s straight man, Momoa has the easier gig in The Wrecking Crew, as his job is to be as rambunctious and funny as possible. It’s not quite the Joker-eque show that the star puts on as the big bad in Fast X, but it’s consistently fun to see him arrive at moments of peril and mortal danger with a wicked grin, and he’s clearly having a blast being a wiseass who takes every opportunity to rebel against anyone and everyone.

Major script issues and questionably directorial questions don’t do any favors for the lame plotting.

The film needs its star power, as it needs to do a lot of heavy lifting for a lackluster script and underwhelming direction. For example, Momoa’s Jonny makes for a fun on-screen hang, but the character would be leagues better if he were equipped with legitimate wit and sass; the film’s idea of sharp dialogue is the Oklahoma cop making fat jokes and expressing concerns about “gaslighting” and “being triggered.” It strives to be Shane Black-esque, but it falls well short of that goal.

It’s hard to even deploy the standard “at least the action scenes were cool,” as sequences frequently have strange issues that are so blatant that they take you totally out of the moment: I have never seen a movie render semi-automatic gunfire to be so pitiful, as their on-screen effect can be described as "occasional spark generators.” One sequence with Dave Bautista in the third act is nothing more than a shameless ripoff of the iconic hallway sequence in Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy, and there is a highway chase that is so badly greenscreened that it practically looks set in doors. It earns some points back for its moments of brutality (the horror fan in me loves a kitchen battle that sees Jonny run a cheese grater down a guy’s arm), but problems tend to outshine highlights.

It would be a lie to say that I had great expectations for The Wrecking Crew going in, but I did at least hope that it would be a dumb action movie elevated by the smart sensibilities of its stars, who have shown integrity in the past with their project choices. In the wake of the end credits, I’m left with a feeling of mild disappointment, but I have maintained appreciation for what Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa can do. Unfortunately, that makes the new movie hard to recommend, as you can get that feeling from a lot of other better films and television shows the two actors have made.