THE 355 Review — Badass Beauties Tear Up the Screen
Lisa Johnson Mandell’s The 355 review revels in the fun of watching female super agents try to save the world, despite their male counterparts.
Who can resist a female spy team movie staring Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong’o, and Fan Bingbing? I certainly can’t, and neither should you.
Women will cheer and men will sweat seeing this game group of sisters doing it for themselves. Is it believable? Is any espionage action movie? I mean really, don’t we readily buy into the James Bond and Mission Impossible franchises, or at least revel in their high octane, high tech trickery? Speaking of Mission Impossible, Chastain can give Tom Cruise a run for his action star money — she’s his female equivalent and then some.
Instead of throwing this diverse group of super agents together on one big team from beginning to end. This sisterhood is assembled slowly and reluctantly, with good old fashioned rivalry, chases and hand to hand combat coming into play. At stake is a small device that can trigger worldwide havoc and gives ultimate control to the one who owns it.
Chastain is the super star but emotionally vulnerable CIA agent. Nyong’o plays an MI6 tech whiz, and Kruger is a super tough German agent. Cruz plays a gifted Colombian psychologist who accidentally gets in involved and just wants to go home to her family, while Bingbing plays a mysterious Chinese entity who seems to be calling all the shots. These are matches made in espionage heaven.
Could writer/director Simon Kinberg (who has worked on a number of X-Men and Deadpool films) have given us more character development? Absolutely. Could he also have instructed the makeup artists to use a lighter hand on Chastain? Of course — they used enough makeup in her last film to sustain her for a decade.
But these are minor criticisms when weighed against the joys of seeing supremely talented actresses taking on the roles that that men have traditionally and cavalierly played for so long. What fun to see the obvious: that women can do everything men can do and more, barefoot or in heels.
PG-13
2 Hours 2 Minutes
If this The 355 review makes you want to dash out to the cineplex, find times and tickets on Fandango.com.
Lisa Johnson Mandell’s The 355 review revels in the fun of watching female super agents try to save the world, despite their male counterparts.
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