Review: G20
Despite a typically great lead performance from Viola Davis, Prime Video’s G20 never escapes the shadow of the countless Die Hard knock-offs that came before it.
Davis plays President Danielle Sutton, who is attending the G20 summit in South Africa with her family, including the First Gentleman Derek (Anthony Anderson), rebellious daughter Serena (Marsai Martin), and son Demetrius (Christopher Farrar). While at the summit’s opening gala, armed terrorists led by Col Edward Rutledge (Antony Starr) take the world leaders hostage, but Sutton, along with her loyal Secret Service agent Manny Ruiz (Ramón Rodríguez) and a few of the dignitaries, is able to escape. Utilizing her background in the Army, Sutton eventually needs to fight back and rescue her family and the G20 leaders. The plot is servicable but doesn’t do anything interesting or unique to make it stand out against the slew of Die Hard knock-offs out there. There’s a mole in Sutton’s ranks, she and Ruiz kill several of Rutledge’s goons, making him increasingly angry, etc. The plot does involve crypto and deep fakes, so I guess it’s trying to be a little relevant to the times, but it’s the most barebones, stripped-down version of those topics. It does shoehorn in a cliche plot about Serena being a teenager and hating her mom, but through the crisis, they resolve their issues. On the other hand, the Demetrius character has no plot value at all, and if he had been removed, nothing would have changed in the movie. The group monitoring the situation in Washington, D.C., also barely factors into the film, which feels like a waste of characters like the VP played by Clark Gregg. It’s especially noticeable, having just watched Air Force One again for the podcast, which did a brilliant job of highlighting what the President, the terrorists, and the command center were doing and shifting the momentum through clever solutions and setbacks along with so many great supporting characters.
Without Davis, this movie would probably be a forgettable slog, but she brings the gravitas and action hero presence that carries it even through the most clichéd and basic plot beats. It does take quite a while for the movie to live up to the promise of its posters, which is President Sutton locked and loaded in full tactical gear, and she only really gets 1 or 2 scenes to be an action bad-ass. Antony Starr is a solid villain, and there are some glimmers of the manic menace of Homelander, but he never really gets to go ham, and there’s not a dynamic between Sutton and Rutledge that gives the best Die Hard knock-offs their cat and mouse dynamic. Marsai Martin’s Serena is a mess of a character, combining a spoiled party girl with an expert-level hacker(?), and the fact that she becomes such a pivotal part of the plot is pretty ridiculous.
There’s nothing action-wise that G20 does either that isn’t bog-standard beats. There’s a fight in a kitchen that feels pretty tame compared to what we saw in Novocaine just a few weeks ago, and there aren’t any cool choreographed set pieces or even ultra-violent kills like Olympus Has Fallen brought to the table. The hotel setting also doesn’t feel unique or interesting, with most of the action in back hallways, kitchens, and the underground garage. If the action had taken place in the hotel’s more luxurious or interesting areas, it may have helped make the action stand out more.
In the end, G20 plays it far too safe, delivering a by-the-numbers thriller that coasts on Viola Davis’ star power but never rises to the level of the classics it’s emulating.
