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Viola Davis is one of our best working actors. She’s periodically dipped her toes into action movie waters over the years with projects such “Suicide Squad” (and by extension “The Suicide Squad” and “Peacemaker”), “Widows” and “The Woman King.” She fully takes the plunge with “G20” (now streaming on Prime Video) to mixed results.
Davis stars as U.S. President Danielle Sutton, a war hero who’s sadly had to be better and work harder than everyone else to get where she is. Her leadership is brought into question when her teenage daughter Serena (Marsai Martin) is caught sneaking out to party at a Georgetown bar. Members of the media ask how President Sutton can keep order in the country if she can’t do the same in her own house.
As a result of Serena’s actions, she and her younger brother Demetrius (Christopher Farrar) must accompany their mother and father First Gentleman Derek Sutton (Anthony Anderson, reuniting with his “Black-ish” co-star Martin) to the G20 Economic Summit in Cape Town, South Africa. It’s here that the President hopes to implement a plan aiding impoverished African nations through digital banking.
Unfortunately, the summit gets hijacked by Aussie mercenary Rutledge (Antony Starr, Homelander’ing it up) and his nefarious minions. President Sutton and her Marine veteran Secret Service buddy Agent Manny Ruiz (“Will Trent” actor Ramón Rodríguez) escape the baddies’ clutches and fight back to free her family and the summit’s other attendees.
“G20” is directed by Patricia Riggen (she’s got a weird and diverse filmography between Disney Channel original “Lemonade Mouth” and trapped Chilean miner movie “The 33”) and scripted by twin brothers Logan and Noah Miller (they previously penned the Matthew McConaughey vehicle “White Boy Rick”) and Caitlyn Parrish and Erica Weiss (they co-created the CBS limited series “The Red Line”) from a story by the Millers.
I’m assuming Riggen got the gig on the basis of her directorial stints on “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” which makes it curious that the action is so disjointed here. It’s all cut to crap and the geography is often disorienting. The script ain’t no great shakes either: Demetrius exclaims, “Holy shit! You’re from Wakanda!,” to a South African guard to hilariously awkward effect … and this is a highlight.
What does work are a lot of the performances. Davis can’t help but be good (at this point I’d pay to watch her read the phone book) and she’s fun to watch in action. Starr chows down on scenery and gives us an expectedly evil villain. The standout for me is Rodríguez, who’s super-likable and has a nice, easy chemistry with Davis.
“G20” is like “White House Down” by way of “Olympus Has Fallen” by way of “Air Force One” (I half expected Davis’ Sutton to say, “Get outta my summit!,” to Starr’s Rutledge) and they’re all riffs on the “Die Hard” formula. The picture isn’t good, but it’s plenty entertaining. It’d slap way harder if Kamala Harris were currently our President as opposed to club champion (and noted golf cheat) Donald Chump.