There’s something great about a buddy cop movie, with the best ones spicing up the action with humor and tension between its leads. That’s what Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista hope to do in The Wrecking Crew, which is set to hit the 2026 movie release calendar on January 28. Critics were able to screen the upcoming action flick, and they’re here to give us some insight into what should be a pretty fun couple of hours.
Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa have come together to play estranged half-brothers James and Jonny Hale, respectively. One is a loose cannon, the other a disciplined Navy SEAL, but they must work together to unravel the mystery behind their father’s murder. Jamie Parker of CBR rates the movie a 7 out of 10, saying it thrives on the chemistry between its leads. The critic hopes this won’t become one of the great buddy cop movies that doesn’t get a sequel, writing:
The Wrecking Crew gives fans exactly what they would expect going into the movie. It is a fun popcorn flick that delivers adrenaline-fueled fun, a buddy cop dynamic, and great performances from Momoa and Bautista. While the plot may fail to impress, it still makes for a comfortable easy-to-stream movie that hearkens back to the simpler action films of the 80s.
ScreenRant’s Greg Hermanns also gives the movie 7 out of 10, celebrating the on-screen pairing of Bautista and Momoa. The actors are really what keeps the movie afloat, Hermanns says, with a fairly unoriginal plot and less character development than a two-hour movie should have. The review concludes:
The combination of [Ángel Manuel Soto's] slick direction and nice chemistry between Bautista and Momoa ultimately keep The Wrecking Crew mostly afloat. It's great to see the Guardians of the Galaxy alum play a more reserved character, yet still find the humor in such a part, while Bautista cutting loose is always a blast. Plus, while the Prime Video [offering] largely wraps things up for the Hale brothers, there's just enough wiggle room for a potential follow-up to learn from some of the first movie's missteps and improve upon the solid foundation.
Pete Hammond of Deadline says The Wrecking Crew’s “battle of the brawn” — Jason Momoa definitely hit the gym to get ready for Dave Bautista — might have been better served on the big screen than streaming with a Prime Video subscription to better show off its bloody blows and beautiful Hawaiian setting. Hammond writes:
Both stars are in their sweet spot with this material and manage to handle not just the huge action quotient here, but also make it believable that in the end Johnny and James are just family, hale and hearty.
However, Giovanni Lago of Next Best Picture says the director isn’t successful in balancing the comedic action with the family drama, leaving little for audiences to enjoy. This review of The Wrecking Crew rates the movie 4 out of 10, with Lago writing:
Is The Wrecking Crew a watchable experience? Depending on who is asked, it’s due mainly to Bautista and Momoa’s chemistry, or more to the attempt to find it. How often can we retread the same ground with this type of 48 Hours comedy duo before it becomes an annoyance? Maybe we’ve already passed that point. … Here, The Wrecking Crew simply relegates itself to the walls of screensaver cinema, destined to be ambient background noise.
Jacob Oller of Paste also finds a tonal imbalance, saying the movie doesn’t lean into the dumb humor enough to make it feel like everyone was at least having fun while making this mess. Oller gives the movie a D+ and says:
[Bautista and Momoa] put their personae and pectorals to work in the action-comedy, playing beefy bickering half-brothers doling out juvenile jokes and hardcore violence in equal measure, though never skewing far enough in either direction... Instead, The Wrecking Crew casts about between genres like driftwood caught by the tide; for two hours, the script cycles between family trauma drama, goofy Hawaiian noir, meathead romp, and wham-bang slugfest. The indecision at least showcases some consistency, though, in that each approach is equally dissatisfying.
Despite widely varying scores, it seems the critics agree that uniting Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista on-screen was a good idea, even if the premise and script leave something to be desired. The good news is that if you want to check out this buddy action flick, you don’t have far to go. The Wrecking Crew will be available to stream on Amazon’s Prime Video starting Wednesday, January 28.
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