Jason Momoa is trying to establish himself as the next big action star in Hollywood but apart from his role as Aquaman in the DCEU, he hasn’t found much success. After appearing in several TV series early in his career, he landed a big title role in the remake of Conan the Barbarian, but that film was a colossal failure and tainted his rise to action stardom. He’s back on the screen again with an action movie that will end up on my list of one the worst films of the year.

Ray Cooper (Momoa) and his wife Amanda (Adria Arjona) are living a simple life and raising their young daughter Rachel (Isabela Merced). One day, Amanda became sick and a doctor notified Ray that she has cancer. Hoping to save her with an experimental drug, the doctor assured Ray that Amanda will be one of the first cancer patients to be able to take the medicine. But suddenly the CEO of the drug company BioPrime, Simon (Justin Bartha), decided to pull the drug off the market. Once Amanda passed, Ray aimed his rage at Simon and his giant pharmaceutical company. Months later, a journalist who’s investigating BioPrime contacted Ray and wants to partner up and take down the evil company. Once Ray met up with the journalist, he was attacked by a hitman named Amos (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo). Badly injured, Ray and Rachel must leave town and try to stay alive and keep ahead from the assassins that’s been sent to eliminate them both.

The screenplay is credited to Gregg Hurwitz and Phillip Eisner. They sort of hit you over the head too much with the theme of an average person trying to survive in our current healthcare system here in the States. Since this is supposed to be an action thriller, the film is basically a long chase. That would’ve been okay with me since I was along for the ride but about a third into the film, the writers decided to include one the most ridiculous plot twist I’ve ever seen. I not going to reveal what that twist is but any credibility the film has up until then, it went right out the window after that scene was revealed.

I’ve seen my shares of ridiculousness in action films, and I can tolerate many of them. I accepted the fact that Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt can hang from airplane/helicopter and escape from explosions without breaking any bones in his body. Or Jason Bourne was involved in so many car clashes and yet he’s still able to walk away from those dangerous scenarios without a scratch. But those films were set in an alternate reality of action pictures, this film tried to make us believe it’s set in the real world and it’s so serious about it, too.

Director Brian Andrew Mendoza didn’t really do much to elevate the script for the screen. He and his cinematographer shot a lackluster looking film. Mendoza also seems to be stuck living the 2000s since he shot the action scenes with the terrible shaky cam and up-close style that was popular in that decade.

Momoa really poured in heart and soul into this silly movie, and I guess it’s the only reason that I didn’t give this film a zero rating. He tried to be an everyman type of action hero, but it’s hard to believe that someone who stands 6’4 and builds like an actual superhero can be an average person. But at least he tried. This is the first time I’ve seen Merced on the screen, and she played the annoying teenager to perfection. Garcia-Rulfo is pretty good as the relentless hitman that’s pursuing our heroes. I was hoping for good mano-a-mano fight between him and Ray for the climax, but that scenario never happened because of the stupid twist.

I know Netflix has churned out many bad action films throughout the years, heck I’ve seen quite a bit of them. But this one might be the worse one yet. I would highly recommend you avoid this film at all costs.

So have you seen Netflix’s SWEET GIRL? Well, what did you think?

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