The more one watches movies, the more one realizes the rarity of any originality coming out of Hollywood.  Take today’s film, for example, The Wrecking Crew (2026).  The first thing I do whenever I sit down to write a review is to go to the International Movie Database (IMDb) and pull up the page for whatever movie I am addressing.  It has decreasingly become a surprise when I find there is a previous entry under the same name.  I have no idea how much the 1968 version matches this one.  The brief description I read of it makes it seem even more ridiculous than this iteration, but it was the film debut for one Chuck Norris.  With nothing nice to say about either of them, why watch them?  Well, I figured even an idiosyncratic Catholic reviewer like myself has to occasionally look at things at which everyone else is looking.  It is not always the Godly approach, but maybe I can bring Christ into my discussion?

From watching the opening sequence of The Wrecking Crew, any sort of Christian approach would appear difficult.  Private detective Walter Hale (Brian L. Keaulana) is making his way through the back streets of Honolulu, Hawaii.  He keeps looking over his shoulder, and it is not clear why he would be worried.  After dropping a package in a mailbox, we witness him being run over by a blue van.  We then cut to a different kind of blue, that of a pool, where United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) officer James Hale (Dave Bautista) is testing cadets by holding their breath underwater.  Upon emerging he is told that Walter, his father, has passed away.  Because they have been estranged for some time, James is not overwrought with emotion.  Indeed, he mentions the death in an offhand manner to his wife, Leila Hale (Roimata Fox).  She knows the history not only between father and son, but also that of James and his equally estranged brother, Jonny Hale (Jason Momoa).  Leila tells James to call his brother, who is a reservation police officer in Oklahoma.  We meet Jonny as he comes home to his girlfriend, Valentina (Morena Baccarin), packing up her car to leave.  Despite his pleadings, she has had enough of his antics, like forgetting her birthday today.  Upon her departure, he retreats into a drunken stupor, though that describes him for most of the film.  It is kind of distracting.  The only thing that seems to rouse him from this state is a ring from Leila informing him of Walter’s demise.  As he is fielding this development while using the facilities, he is intruded upon by representatives of the Japanese mafia known as the Yakuza.  They want the package Walter sent, but Jonny has no knowledge of it.  The first of many fight scenes ensues, and Jonny emerges from it alive and on his way to Hawaii.  He gets there in time for the end of Walter’s service, though James is not happy to see his brother.  Actually, they are half-brothers, and this is a major reason for their resent of one another.  In the ensuing squabble back at James’ place, we find out that he had been responsible for sending Jonny away instead of looking for the one responsible for the person who killed Jonny’s mother.  Another reason for the tension between them is that Jonny believes Walter’s death is murder instead of the hit-and-run explanation James accepts.  It is Jonny’s certainty that gets James to start looking into the matter on his own, while Jonny conducts his own investigation.  Eventually, the brothers meet at Walter’s apartment/office where they find an intruder, Pika (Jacob Batalon).  Actually, Pika is not an intruder but somebody who had worked for Walter.  As such, they learn some more about their father’s activities, including finding a set of building plans hidden in a surf board.  The blueprints are handed to Haunani “Nani” Palakiko (Frankie Adams), an assistant to the governor of Hawaii, Peter Mahoe (Temuera Morrison).  From her, they learn that these are plans for a casino to be built on sovereign land that belongs to the native peoples of the island.  When it comes to real estate, there is only one person in the area to investigate, and that is Marcus Robichaux (Claes Bang).  Through Pika, James and Jonny are able to get into a fund-raising party hosted by Marcus, posing as caterers.  Sound familiar?  Jonny is distracted by Monica Robichaux (Lydia Peckham), Marcus’ wife, from whom we find out that she had hired Walter to look into her husband.  Meanwhile, James is able to link Marcus to the Yakuza with a run-in with the mob boss, Nakamura (Miyavi).  Before Jonny can get any more from Monica, the next day he finds her dead in front of a hotel, the victim of being thrown to her death.  Angered by the murder and its parallel to his mother’s, Jonny goes after Marcus on his own but is arrested.  James bails him out and they finally make their peace with their past with a fistfight in the parking lot.  At James’ house, Jonny gets a call from Valentina, who had stopped by his house in Oklahoma to get more of her stuff and comes across the package from earlier.  Arrangements are made for her to immediately fly to Hawaii.  As they are driving home from the airport, Pika has to hack into a thumb drive that had been inside the parcel all while being shot at by Yakuza henchmen in a helicopter.  Following some harrowing moments on the road, they learn that Marcus had been funneling money to Peter in order to have a casino built on native land.  Worse yet, Marcus’ goons have kidnapped Leila and Nani, so James and Jonny have to initiate action mode to save them.  Once they are rescued, Peter is arrested, and we are able to see our . . . um . . . heroes(?) getting a family barbecue on the beach.

The reason I am unsure as to whether to call James and Jonny heroes in The Wrecking Crew is because of the title.  They are supposed to be wrecking bad guys, but they do an extreme amount of damage to public property in the process.  For example, while watching the chase scene with the minivan and the helicopter, instead of being thrilled by the action, I kept worrying about the innocent people simply driving down the highway on a regular day.  Still, that is not what makes them anti-heroes.  To be fair, it is probably only Jonny that fits that description, though at one point it is said of both of them that they have a darkness in them.  As a Catholic, I have some issues with the notion of an “anti-hero.”  Generally speaking, it is an oxymoron to say that a bad person is doing good things, which is a rough definition of the term.  I am not purporting it is an impossibility.  God did not make us as being either all good or all bad.  The person who arguably embodies this truth the most is James.  He supposedly has had a stellar military career, but he is often unable to control his violent tendencies.  He was a terrible brother, but a great dad.  We can be all these things and more, and be affected by these traits in different ways.  The important thing in all of this is to have a relationship with God, although such thoughts are entirely absent from this movie.  It is with Jonny that I have more difficulties.  Granted, he is troubled by his upbringing, and professes to want to do better.  At the same time, up until the end, he makes all the wrong choices.  In Matthew 7:16-20, Jesus talks about followers of Him being known by their fruit.  That should not suggest that simply believing in God automatically makes one do righteous acts.  However, true belief should manifest itself in holiness.  Jonny is none of those things.

In the end, The Wrecking Crew is not bad because Jonny is a jerk for most of the movie.  It is bad because it offers nothing new.  I am glad to see brothers put aside their differences, but it could be accomplished with a lot less swearing and violence.  In short, you have seen this film.