‘Yellowstone’ Star’s Forgotten ‘Taken’ Meets ‘Face/Off’ Sci-Fi Misfire Finds New Life on Streaming

A suspiciously star-studded movie from a decade ago has been discovered on streaming. It didn’t make much of an impression during its theatrical run, even though it featured A-listers from two generations. Ironically, a handful of them would go on to scale incredible heights only a few years later. Had the movie been delayed by a few months, it might have even fared better at the box office. However, its lukewarm critical reception would still have been a concern; it’s not like the movie found an audience in the last decade. But it could now! It is, after all, among the most-watched titles on the domestic Tubi chart this week, according to FlixPatrol.

The film was released in 2016 and starred Kevin Costner. It reunited him with his JFK co-stars Gary Oldman and Tommy Lee Jones, 25 years after that film’s successful run. The 2016 film also featured Gal Gadot, who’d debut as Wonder Woman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice mere weeks later, and Ryan Reynolds, who’d recently starred in Deadpool. Incidentally, this was one of the two consecutive movies in which Reynolds’ character exits stage left in the first act. The other was the sci-fi film Life. Besides Gadot and Reynolds, the film also featured Antje Traue and Alice Eve. The film’s plot revolves around a convict who has a dead CIA agent’s memories implanted in his mind before being sent on a dangerous mission. Think of it as a cross between Face/Off and Taken.

Did You Guess the Movie Yet?

The movie we’re talking about is Criminal, directed by Ariel Vromen. It grossed around $38 million worldwide against a reported budget of $31 million, and earned mediocre reviews. Criminal is now sitting at a 30% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads, “Despite the valiant efforts of a game and talented cast, Criminal has little to offer beyond the bare minimum expected by the most undemanding of genre enthusiasts.” Only two years after the film’s release, Costner headlined the neo-Western series Yellowstone, whose success ushered in a new era of his stardom. You can watch Criminal on Tubi domestically, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.