Warning: SPOILERS for The Wrecking Crew are ahead!
The Wrecking Crew is the latest 2026 movie I’ve watched. I had an enjoyable time streaming it with my Prime Video subscription. This action flick stars Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista as estranged half-brothers Jonny and James, who come together to solve the murder of their father, Walter Hale. The man responsible is revealed to be Marcus Robichaux, a casino developer in league with Hawaii governor Peter Mahoe and the Yakuza, who had Walter killed when he uncovered their plan to build a casino on Hawaiian homelands.
As far as Jason Momoa’s Jonny and Dave Bautista’s James go, I agree with many critics that it was fun to watch them kick ass while bickering with each other, and I’d certainly welcome seeing them return for a potential Wrecking Crew 2. However, there were two big issues I had with Robichaux, played by Claes Bang, after finishing this movie.
There’s No Setup For Robichaux’s Fighting Skill
For most of The Wrecking Crew, Robichaux lets his goons handle the dirty work, but eventually, there comes a point where he has no choice but to fight Jonny. Now, you’d think that, given how many bad guys Jason Momoa’s character had taken down at this point, I figured that he wouldn’t break a sweat beating up Robichaux. Not so, as Robichaux instead gets the upper hand and beats Jonny within an inch of his life.
Now I wouldn’t have a problem with this if The Wrecking Crew had made any attempt to establish that Robichaux was skilled in combat, but there wasn’t any. Sure, he’s in good shape, but that doesn’t meant equate to being able to easily pummel Jonny. Now granted, I acknowledge the more brash and reckless of the Hale brothers was suffering from some injuries by the time he and Robichaux, so that would have diminished his fighting ability.
Still, I can’t suspend my disbelief enough that Robichaux would have come out on top of that fight so quickly. If The Wrecking Crew had shown at least one scene beforehand of the villain beating someone up without breaking a sweat, then I might’ve bought it. But with what we got, it doesn’t fly to me that Jonny didn’t deliver the winning blow, even if just barely.
Who Leaves An Active Grenade Sitting On Their Desk?
In any case, Jonny ultimately came out victorious when he detonated a grenade that blew up Robichaux on the boat he intended to escape on. Where did Jonny get this grenade? He swiped it from the top of Robichaux’s desk, as the casino developer had it on display as a World War I antique.
That’s right, Robichaux had an active grenade just sitting out for anyone to grab. I’m sorry, what? I could understand him wanting to show off the explosive if it was decommissioned, but to keep that thing usable was incredibly stupid.
This immediately made me think of Ron Swanson from Parks & Recreation, who for many years had a claymore mine sitting on his desk at the Pawnee Parks Department that Leslie Knope gifted him. In the Season 7 episode “Leslie and Ron,” Ron attempted to use the mine to blow up a door when he and Leslie were trapped inside the Parks Department, only to discover it was an empty shell that she’d filled with balloons and confetti. Leslie scoffed at Ron thinking it was actually a usable, partially diffused mine, and I too was bewildered by Robichaux’s decision to keep that grenade operative.
Again, none of this detracted from my overall enjoyment of The Wrecking Crew, but Marcus Robichaux certainly won’t be ranking high on my list of best action movie villains. If a sequel does get greenlit, fingers crossed the antagonist in that story is handled more effectively.
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