Beautiful Brit Kate Beckinsale is no stranger to fantasy action flicks after starring in VON HELSING and about five UNDERWORLD outings, fighting vampires and werewolves and bears (? – oh my). She looks every bit the part of an ass-kicker, and her stunt doubles work hard to maintain the illusion effectively. JOLT is more science-y and less supernatural than the aforementioned in this new fast-paced, high-octane rush for adrenaline junkies.
Beckinsale stars as a woman with such extreme anger issues, and abilities to act upon them, that she can only function in society while rigged with a device that lets her self-administer an industrial-strength electric shock when triggered. Which occurs often and easily. Her therapist (Stanley Tucci) oversees her attempts at forging a life. When she falls for a guy (Jai Courtney) during a one-night stand, she starts believing for the first time ever that she might have a shot at true, lasting love. But he’s killed the next day, squashing that dream, and setting her on a course to identify the perp, or perps, and even the score.
That’s a good, if not novel, premise for the mayhem to follow, as the reasons behind her loss unfold and spiral into Big Conspiracy territory. The ensuing events include more twists and surprises than average for such fare, and set up a whole lotta well-executed action sequences. Beckinsale is variably in league or at odds with the local cops in their respective pursuits. Bobby Cannavale is the supportive, sensitive detective, while his partner (superbly played by Laverne Cox) is the skeptic who’d like nothing better than putting Beckinsale down for the count.
Director Tanya Wexler runs a taut ship admirably well for one with only a handful of features on her resume, not exactly concentrated in this sort of production. I don’t know what the final release’s running time will be but the version made available to reviewers for screening maintained a pace, balanced between action and exposition, that kept me from thinking about that. That’s a big compliment, Ms. Wexler, since failure to trim the footage fat has been, unfortunately, a frequent component of my reviews. (Are you seeing this, Mr. Apatow?)
In a summer relatively light on escapist releases, this one’s a solid bet for entertainment value. They dangle the possibility of a sequel (without the Marvel-induced post-credits scene), which is a prospect I welcome. Now that they’ve established such a worthy protagonist, let’s keep her going with those clicks on Prime Video, folks.
JOLT opens on-demand Friday, July 23, on Amazon Prime.
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
