Shadow Force (2025)

​“Shadow Force” stars Kerry Washington, Omar Sy, Mark Strong, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Cliff “Method Man” Smith.  Released on May 9, 2025, the film has a husband and wife protecting their son from a special forces group.

The film was directed by Joe Carnahan, who also directed films such as “Narc”, “Smokin’ Aces”, “The Grey”, and “Copshop”.  There was an idea that involved two operatives falling in love, going off the grid to start a family, and the organization they worked for chasing after them.  That concept became known as “Back in Action”, which united Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx for an action-packed and comical ride for Netflix subscribers to endure.  With the success of that action comedy, the folks at Hollywood saw the opportunity to take this concept to the big screen just in time for the summer season.  This resulted in the latest action thriller involving a husband/wife duo favoring their family over a special forces team that takes this “betrayal” personally.  Does it pack enough punches in its plot and action to attract its counter-programming audience, or deserve to be gunned down?  Let’s find out.

The story centers on Kyrah (Washington) and Isaac (Sy), the highly trained agents who lead a secretive, multinational special forces group called Shadow Force.  Kyrah and Isaac also fell in love and decided to retire from the force to raise their young son Ky (Jahleel Kamara).  Their retirement suddenly comes to a halt when their manager, Jack Cinder (Strong), sends the entire team to execute them for going “rogue”.  Now wanted by the organization they worked for, Kyrah and Isaac rely on their skills to protect their son and get the peace they deserve.

I’m not joking when I say that “Shadow Force” looked like a copy-and-paste version of “Back in Action” regarding its concept.  The difference between the two is that “Shadow Force” is more along the lines of an intense action thriller compared to the light-hearted tone in “Back in Action”.  Plus, Cameron Diaz was replaced by Kerry Washington, who has starred in more dramas than action movies throughout her filmography.  Besides that, this movie is “Back in Action 2.0” without Diaz and Foxx stepping in to help the duo.  So, you can definitely see why it took me this long to review this film.  That, and my weekend was booked for Mother's Day.  Considering the film involves a badass mother protecting her son, I guess you could consider this review a late Mother's Day gift for all the mothers checking out my website.  Now that I have had a chance to watch it, is it also a suitable option for that occasion?  Well, let’s say that you’re better off giving your mom flowers instead.

I made a call to save this film for last, and after I found the opportunity to see it, I realized that I made the right choice.  “Shadow Force” is what happens when you make “Back in Action” again, strip away the light-hearted comedy and charm, and make it ten times more boring and generically bland than that movie.  While it did have some promising elements in its concept, they’re quickly overshadowed by its lack of thrilling ideas and appeal to get itself off the hit list.  One of those elements was the cinematography, which respectfully captured the film’s bleak and dramatic atmosphere, particularly for the first two acts.  Regardless of the quality, I can admit there were specific sequences that were suitably shot by Juan Azpiroz, especially regarding the action set pieces and production designs.  The only thing holding it back was the editing by Kevin Hale and Mike Sale, which constantly disrupted the flow of its narrative and hard-hitting violence with its scattershot approach.  Sometimes, the film just cuts to a different scene abruptly without a sense of closure, while other times, it needlessly cuts to a different angle of an action scene.

The other element was the characters, including Isaac, who tackles the role of a loving father to Ky.  However, his new job got more dangerous when an incident exposed him and his son to Jack’s Shadow Force team.  Then, there’s Kyrah, whose latest role as Ky’s mother has her fighting to protect him and escape Jack’s corrupted nature.  In short, the movie has plenty of mom power for all the mothers to enjoy.  The protagonists embody the film’s exploration of familial bonds and the lengths people will go to protect their loved ones, regardless of the consequences that pursue them, providing an opportunity to inject emotion into its constantly thrilling scenario.  The problem is that the screenplay was vastly inadequate in exploring these elements.  The script, which Leon Chills and director Joe Carnahan wrote, consists of a straightforward plot that didn’t provide many ideas to make the concept more interesting.  It’s basically two people going on the run while protecting their son for over an hour and a half, and nothing else.  While its simplicity can make for some decent entertainment, “Shadow Force” struggled to deliver that promise through its bland and halfhearted storytelling and subpar dialogue.    

It also didn’t help that the third act, which is usually the grand finale in any action movie, gradually descended into the genre’s most underwhelming and formulaic traits and never recovered.  Joe Carnahan has been known for delivering a grimly engaging style that blends in with the slickly entertaining violence, with “Boss Level” and “Copshop” being the examples I enjoyed due to his direction.  This gave me a bit of hope that Carnahan would deliver something similar to those examples I mentioned.  What I got instead is quite possibly his weakest directorial effort that lacks the charm, humor, and edge to elevate its tedious concept and action.  While I appreciated most of the action scenes for not abusing the shaky cam maneuver, that doesn’t always make them more enjoyable, since they take more than still camerawork to fully capture the intensity of the violence.  Sadly, I didn’t find anything in the action that makes it enjoyable and wow-inducing regarding the emotional weight and the choreography to coincide with some of its promising frameworks.  Again, the third act marks an example of this issue.

Kerry Washington and Omar Sy were the latest duo to try to capture the charismatic chemistry seen in other movies involving spy lovers like “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and “Back in Action”.  While their performances were okay at best, the chemistry between the husband/wife duo felt almost nonexistent.  I didn’t see the connection between the two that made me want to root for their survival, although there were a few scenes that made me smile a bit.  Without the charisma and humor injected into these characters, it felt like the actors were just doing their jobs to get their paychecks instead of embracing their protagonists and their traits.  I’m sure that Kerry Washington was a good actress in her previous works, but in this film, her line delivery got a bit worse as it progressed for some reason.  I also had no idea why Da’Vine Joy Randolph signed on for this movie after winning an Oscar for her role in “The Holdovers”.  Don’t get me wrong.  She’s not bad in the film as Auntie Clanter.  It’s that she’s way too talented for a script like this.  Cliff “Method Man” Smith as Marcus Owens was an odd choice that absolutely did not pay off regarding his mediocre performance and humor.  At least Jahleel Kamara made some effort to provide charismatic humor regarding his role as Ky, compared to the other actors he worked with.  It didn’t always work, but he tried, and that’s all that matters to me.

Overall, “Shadow Force” is an incredibly dull and insufficient thriller that falls into the shadows of blandness.  There’s no doubt that Juan Azpiroz’s cinematography offered some pretty nifty shots for the backgrounds and violence.  Unfortunately, those shots were stripped away by the film's underwhelming and fundamental approach to a simple concept, leaving me with an uninspiring and heavily generic experience that’s neither fun nor thrilling.  With its okay cast, mediocre direction, bland script, disappointing third act, and weak editing, the film should’ve been forced into the shadows of direct-to-streaming.  If you’re still interested in watching it due to Kerry Washington’s involvement, I would say hold off until it’s available at home for free.  Otherwise, it’s best not to accept this kill contract.

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