Directed by:
Tate TaylorScreenplay:
Matthew NewtonCinematography:
Stephen GoldblattComposer:
Bear McCrearyCast:
Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell, John Malkovich, Geena Davis, Common, Jess Weixler, Joan Chen, Diana Silvers, Ioan Gruffudd, Levon PanekVOD (4)
Plots(1)
Ava (Jessica Chastain) is a deadly mercenary who works for a black ops organization, travelling the globe and specializing in high profile hits. Avas career takes a bad turn when a high profile job goes wrong due to faulty information provided to her. With a botched hit (as well as a track record for questioning the validity of her targets), Ava is told to take a hiatus until the heat blows over, but secretly the head of the organization, Simon, (Colin Farrell) has ordered a hit on her to ensure nothing traces back to the company. With the recent death of her father, Ava decides to go back home to Boston and attempt to mend her relationship with her mother and sister, Judy, though the homecoming proves to be far from happy as the years of estrangement have created resentment. To complicate things further, Avas ex-fiancé, Michael is now in a relationship with Judy, and involved with an underground gambling ring that Ava knows all too well from her younger days. Ava now has to save her family and herself from multiple threats, while battling her own demons. (Madman Entertainment)
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Reviews (9)
Nothing that we haven't seen before (perhaps with the exception of Steven Seagal's films), and it’s been done better. Jessica Chastain battles not only killers, but also the stupid script, the rest of the cast looks good in the credits, but as a result it's all a big missed chance. In addition, Tate Taylor can't even shoot a proper action scene, which is pretty bad for an action movie.
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Ava is the first star-studded Hollywood movie to be released since lockdown and it is extraordinarily bad. Few films of such low quality make it to cinemas, ending up being branded as the biggest fuck-ups of the year. Did the actors even read the screenplay before saying yes to this? Malkovich is the only one who maintains his dignity here, as his character is the only one that makes sense. The role reserved for Common is a bad joke (when we recall how he turned in a good performance in, for example, the genre-related John Wick 2). Farrell’s main villain – a ruthless killer with zero characterization – doesn’t fit in at all either, and Geena Davis’s overly botoxed mother character could have elicited sympathy if the screenplay had allowed her to do so. But the whole sad family storyline with the problematic daughter played by Jessica Chastain is completely unworkable and only delays the secret-agent brawls and shootouts, which of course are nothing to write home about either, as they only add action to the most hackneyed secret-agent motif possible, i.e. the elimination of one member of a team of hired assassins. But what really cuts this film off at the knees is Jessica’s character, who has not a single likable character trait worthy of compassion or any reasonable motivations for the past decisions that she now regrets as she attempts to find her way back to her family. It’s as if she is supposed to be some sort of pop-culture anti-heroine whom we are supposed to root for due to the fact that she fucks up both everything she touches and everything she avoids. There is nothing good about this film.
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I give this film one star only because I felt sorry for John Malkovich, who, regardless of the script, gave a high-quality performance as usual. For me, he was the only part of the movie which wasn’t a disappointment. I wasn't impressed by the rest of the cast, especially Geena Davis, who was downright terrifying, looking like her own rubber caricature. The script was terrible, the choreography of the fights was ridiculous (or pathetic, it’s up to you to decide) and Jessica Chastain was as convincing as Idris Elba in the role of Heimdall.
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Ava is a bit of a pointless film. In terms of action, it wants to be Anna and in terms of story it wants to be Red Sparrow, but in terms of quality it doesn't live up to either. Fortunately, it stars Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell, actors who make every movie worth seeing. The action is unfortunately dull to the point of woe, but it's good enough to kill the boredom. Story**, Action***, Humor>No, Violence**, Entertainment***, Music***, Visuals***, Atmosphere***, Suspense***. 5/10.
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The only scenes where Jessica Chastain is not replaced by a stunt double are the ones where she has cleavage up to her waist and a slit too. Thanks God at least for that. The rest is tragic, absolutely devoid of substance and script. Malkovich is the only one who kind of sticks out as an actor. Charlize was an agent of a different calibre.
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