There are some types of screen narratives that probably shouldn’t be attempted on limited means, and “international espionage thriller” may well be one of them. That notion is illustrated by “Alarum,” which features Scott Eastwood and Willa Fitzgerald as a budget “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” ex-spies united in an under-radar domesticity interrupted by heavily armed reminders of their past. Michael Polish’s film gamely tries to compensate for unspectacular production values with a lot of action — but its staging is pedestrian at best. Alexander Vesha’s script never convinces, and the competent actors fail to spark, despite Sylvester Stallone’s presence as a reluctantly reunited former colleague.
A prologue in 2019 Prague finds Joe (Eastwood) shot through a window, then overcoming further mano-a-mano assailants who include Lara (Fitzgerald). But rather confusingly, this fracas appears to have been staged so that duo can exit their top-secret careers as globe-trotting clandestine agents, disappearing together into civilian life. Five years later and now newly married, they are honeymooning in a winter resort town outside Gdansk, trying to act “like normal people.” Unfortunately, it seems they’re suspected of possessing a flash drive much coveted by players good, bad and ambiguous worldwide. That is first signaled by a small plane crashing in the forested vicinity, its passengers looking very much like professional assassins who’ve just been professionally assassinated.
Hiking nearby with tourists, Joe has barely begun to poke around the debris when he’s surrounded by a small army of hostile mercenaries led by ruthless Orlin (Mike Colter). Joe escapes, leading them on a machine-gun-peppered chase through the woods. Meanwhile, back at the resort, Lara does her best to keep guests and villagers from being slaughtered as these invading forces threaten everyone in their path. Alerted to the situation long-distance are a pair of CIA-connected officials (D.W. Moffett and Mark Polish), who have their own reasons for letting it play out bloodily rather than sending in the cavalry. They do fly in Chester (Stallone), a former confederate of Joe’s now quite willing to take him out if ordered.
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The convoluted plot, shifting allegiances and some basics of “why exactly is this happening?” are hard to keep straight, largely because we’re never drawn in enough to care. The film is named after a fictive organization of rogue spies who “want to tear down the tyranny of the global intelligence network.” Still, its existence remains little more than a rumor in Vesha’s screenplay.
Keeping his leads separated for most of the runtime, Polish runs them through gauntlets of knife fights, fist fights, gun fights, rocket fights and more. Yet that physical action has neither the “Bourne” movies’ visceral punch nor the “Rambo” series’ over-the-top spectacle, while alternately aiming for each. It doesn’t help that some of the VFX work on tap is iffy.
This ex-art-house director’s 2020 “Force of Nature” served up another ammo-splaying orgy of destruction in a remote setting. But its crisis-driven story was more original, its characters more down-to-earth. Here, we’re never persuaded the various figures acting so tough are all that, let alone that they’re key players on a vast stage of multinational intrigue.
Those recently knocked out by Fitzgerald’s femme fatale in indie sleeper “Strange Darling” will be disappointed that this role asks so little of her beyond athleticism. She and Eastwood attempt a bantering dynamic that only weakens any pretense of mortal peril, while a tired Stallone and arch Moffatt at times seem to be kidding the material — which isn’t strong enough to take it.
Subbing rural Ohio locations for the primary setting in rural Poland, “Alarum” is busy and pacey enough to keep the viewer diverted, despite the occasional lull. But it’s never exciting, suspenseful, intricate or witty enough to get you fully involved in the first place. The bombastic opening and closing credit sequences seem designed to bracket a movie whose outsized ride is wilder than this stubbornly modest enterprise ever manages.
Lionsgate is releasing this watchable if forgettable genre exercise to U.S. theaters as well as digital and On Demand platforms January 17th.