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Criminal | 2016 | R | - 2.7.9

After a CIA agent (Ryan Reynolds) is murdered, his memories are transplanted into another man's brain in order to extract sensitive details about a criminal plot. The difficulties begin when the man (Kevin Costner) chosen to receive the memories is a murderous psychopath on death row. Also with Gal Gadot, Alice Eve, Antje Traue, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Scott Adkins and Michael Pitt. Directed by Ariel Vromen. Several lines of dialogue are spoken in foreign languages with English subtitles. [1:53]

SEX/NUDITY 2 - A man has visions of a woman wearing lingerie and skimpy outfits that reveal cleavage, bare abdomen and bare legs to the hip in a few scenes. A woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage.
 Two men kiss on a bridge as another man drives by. A man has visions of kissing a woman. We see a photograph of a man and a woman kissing. A woman sits on a man's lap and they hug.
 A man strapped to a table touches the clothed buttock of a medical person standing near the bed (she looks at the man and moves away). A husband calls his wife on the phone and asks her what she is wearing and she replies, "Lingerie," (she is not wearing lingerie).

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A man being transported in the back of a car uses a metal hook to tear the neck out of the driver (the driver thrashes and loses control as blood sprays and spurts and we hear crunching and squishing sounds); the car crashes into another car and the passenger is thrown through the windshield and onto the ground (presumably dead) while the driver of the other car has a bloody cut on his head and the man from the first car punches him and drags him to the first car, and then sets it on fire.
 A man tied to a chair is poked in the abdomen with an electrified cattle prod and he moans and thrashes (we hear the crackle and buzz of the current); the torturer then places the device in the man's mouth and another person turns up the charge (we see the man shake and his cheeks glow red before the scene ends and we later see the man dead).
 A woman shoots a man in the shoulder, then another man in the leg and through the head (we see blood splatter and matter burst out of the back of his head). A man being chased by others tries to evade them by getting on and off a crowded bus and running through a subway station, he steals a motorcycle and speeds through busy streets being chased by cars, rides in a taxi to a deserted building where the driver is shot (blood splatters on the windshield) and he exchanges fire with several other gunmen (some fall dead with blood splatters and grunts). People in a car shoot into another car and several people are shot with blood splatter; one man steals another car and drives off a bridge and into water where he escapes through a broken window cutting his leg (we see blood in the water and hear a tear). People shoot at each other in a crowded public area causing others to run and scream. A man shoots another man twice and holds a gun to a young girl's head.
 We see a dead man on a medical table in an operating theater and the top of his head has been removed (we see blood and tissue) while another man on another table is sedated and we see drills boring through his skull (we see blood dribble from the hole); computer screens show brain activity in both men and one man develops a brain hemorrhage that lights up on the screens as a doctor says the man will die (he does not).
 A man hits a woman in the back of the head with a potted cactus, then beats her over the head with a lamp and we hear cracking and crunching before we see her dead on the floor with blood on her head and face. A man throws an ax and hits another man off-screen. A man steals food from another man in a restaurant and leaves after a worker threatens him with a hammer; he confronts three men in the parking lot and beats each of them to the ground by smashing their heads in a car door and pounding on them with a cooler. A man punches another man in the face and he falls to the floor complaining of a broken nose. A man drives a van onto a sidewalk nearly pinning a man to a wall; he exits the van and slams a crow bar against a metal door behind the man threatening him for medicine. Armed men grab a man and beat him with punches and a gun butt, then handcuff him and lead him to a car; he kicks one of the attackers in the ankle and the other two men struggle with him. A handcuffed man hits another man in the stomach then wraps the chain around the man's throat; two other men with guns come into the room and threaten to shoot him. A woman holds a gun to another woman's head and we later see the threatened woman being held in a car with her young daughter.
 A man with a bloody cut on his leg cuts away his pant leg and we see the open wound and blood as he injects himself and pours something n it. A man tied to a chair spits blood and we see cuts on his face and head from beatings (blood is shown on his T-shirt). An unresponsive man is found and defibrillator paddles are pressed to his chest with no result and he is pronounced dead. We see crime photos of people after brutal murders (bloody faces, heads and unidentifiable bloody tissue). A man is shown with angry looking scars on the side and back of his head throughout the movie; one scar has thick stitches on it. We see blood on a pillowcase where a man has been sleeping. A man has repeated flashes of memories that confuse him and he grimaces in pain frequently. A man angrily throws things off his desk and onto the floor.
 A man driving an ambulance slams into a man standing in front of a car crushing him and the car (we do not see injuries). A man steals an ambulance and is chased by several police cars; one crashes into another and flips over on the highway, a truck jackknifes and blocks thro road causing another car to crash and explode (we do not see victims). A woman with a gun finds a man in her basement and holds the gun on him until he says that he will leave. A man breaks into a house, tapes a woman's mouth shut and tapes her hands to the bed as she struggles and screams; the man then goes to a child's room (he does not harm her), then returns to the woman lying in bed, says, "Don't make me hurt you," and touches her bare legs (she squirms and he leaves). A woman blocks herself into a room with her young daughter and arms herself with a heavy object.
 A missile strikes a plane mid-air and it explodes. A man throws a few bottles of chemicals that cause an explosion in a lab and two people are thrown (we see a woman with small cuts on her face as she revives). A missile is launched from a submarine and detonated in mid-air (no injuries).
 A prisoner is seen chained around the neck in a jail cell and he is shot with two tranquilizer darts before guards enter the cell. A man is shown bound and strapped to medical tables in a few scenes and he struggles against the restraints with no luck.
 A man tells another man, "I beat her [girlfriend] up and she's dead." A man talks about his father calling his mother names and throwing him, as a child, out a car window and causing brain trauma. A man says several times, "You hurt me, I hurt you worse." A man's voiceover says, "They messed with my brain." A man on death row is described as having "a lack of empathy, no impulse control." A man complains of pain in his head and asks a doctor for relief. A man demands money for a stolen military operating system. A woman tells a man on the phone that her husband is dead. A man tells another man, "I'm going to rip out your heart." We hear about a "...search for a missing body in the Thames." A man yells at a woman, and then apologizes.

LANGUAGE 9 - About 48 F-words and its derivatives, 2 obscene hand gestures, 9 scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms, 1 mild obscenity, name-calling (psycho, whore, dumb, crazy, sugar-puss, genius), exclamations (shut-up), 1 religious profanity (GD), 4 religious exclamations (Swear To God, Oh My God, Christ, Jesus [F-word deleted] Christ).

SUBSTANCE USE - A man injects another man with a sedative and he calms down, and a man takes a pill for pain in a couple of scenes. A woman is shown holding a glass of wine, a woman is shown with a glass of wine on a table in front of her, and people in a café are seen with glasses of wine on their tables. A man smokes a cigarette in an office, a man smokes on a sidewalk in a few scenes, and a man steals a lit cigarette from a car after a car crash and smokes it as he kills the driver of the car.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Covert operations, national security, computer hacking, torture, memory retrieval, brain trauma, corruption, treason, experimental medical procedures, emotions, respect.

MESSAGE - Bad people can be made to do good, even if it's just temporarily.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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We are a totally independent website with no connections to political, religious or other groups & we neither solicit nor choose advertisers. You can help us keep our independence with a donation.

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