"G20" Review - Movies With Mark

Director: Patricia Riggen Screenwriter: Caitlin Parrish, Erica Weiss, Logan Miller, Noah Miller Cast: Viola Davis, Anthony Anderson, Marsai Martin, Ramón Rodríguez, Douglas Hodge, Elizabeth Marvel, Sabrina Impacciatore, Clark Gregg, Antony Starr Distributor: Amazon MGM Studios Running Time: 108 min. MPAA: R

G20 is a frustrating action thriller because it seems to stumble so close to being a revenge fantasy fit for 2025. Here is a film where a Black female president becomes an action hero as she beats the crap out of terrorists trying to destabilize the world with AI and crypto. Obviously, a film like this came out too fast to be so perfect for the era of eroding freedoms and crashing economies, but it still has the bittersweet taste of highlighting a history that could’ve been and an action picture that could’ve been something more.

Viola Davis has stated that she took on such a role to represent more badass black women in movies. She certainly delivers on that as US President Danielle Sutton, established early as someone with combat experience and regular training to stay tough. You never know when some terrorists might take you hostage. While waiting for the bomb to drop, she clashes with her clever daughter, Serena (Marsai Martin), and snarky son, Demetrius (Christopher Farrar). There’s no conflict with her supporting husband, Derek (Anthony Anderson), serving more as someone to save when the guns and knives come out.

As the title implies, Danielle will get her moment to attack when the G20 summit comes under attack by vicious terrorists led by the teeth-gnashing Rutledge (Antony Starr). The film makes the smart call of focusing more on how willing the villain is to shoot people and slit their throats than his scheme involving boosting cryptocurrencies by forcing financial advisement with AI. The scheme itself feels flimsy for how the terrorists want to record footage of world leaders to use as deep fakes for market manipulation, releasing the doctored footage at the same time as an ongoing hostage situation. Then again, the news reports of how citizens fell for the financial advice of easily debunked AI footage are sadly believable. Time will tell how the absurdity of rocket-launcher-wielding crypto-bros will become more fact than fiction.

Of course, I didn’t come into this film expecting a thoughtful thriller weaving in the dangers of tech damaging the economy. The film was advertised as Viola Davis being a badass, and it delivers on the goods in that respect. Davis has always had wicked line delivery, and she thankfully gets to do a lot of punching and shooting as President Pulverizer. Watching her brutalize her aggressors in a stylish dress with comfortable sneakers is cool on the surface. Getting to those fights, however, is a fairly routine journey and simplistic platitudes of female empowerment. Davis taking charge is cool, but the film often slows down her commanding performance to make points about the cowering men or embrace how the women in her group take charge.

While that’s fine on paper, there’s a stumbling to how the film tacks on these empowering moments. At one point, Sabrina Impacciatore’s character will take off her uncomfortable heels to insist she drive a car to safety. The pacing grinds with the extended sequence of her taking off her shoes and getting in the car, as if to give time for applause. I’d wager a bigger cheer would be garnered if she stumbled her way to the car in fury, took them off while getting inside, and chuck them out the window before she drives off while muttering, “Fuck those heels.” This film needs to speed up and take charge rather than slow down to make a lukewarm virtuous point between the carnage.

The theatrics of the film are not bad, especially for scenes of Davis laying waste to a room of bad guys and the climax involving a helicopter. But there’s a tone present of a made-to-order Netflix diversion in how the film goes through the motions of getting to all the action. The kids will narrowly escape the terrorists while using their tech skills to work behind the scenes. Ramón Rodríguez will play the agent who risks it all to save the President but will be sidelined for Davis to take charge. Clark Gregg will pop up as the Vice President from time to time to spit exposition from a room full of computers and intelligence officials. Even the twist of betrayals arrives right on cue without much shock or surprise, showing the double-cross before Davis can figure it out and deliver her wise deductions.

G20 serves up sufficient Viola Davis action but with framing far too routine for the action-thriller genre. The vocal empowerment does feel like an admirable necessity, considering how there are too few black women in these typical films. But for stressing the old mantra of “Anything you can do, I can do better,” this picture doesn’t exactly blow the competition out of the water, even if it does rise a bit higher in character and chaos. Davis indeed has a better presence than more bog-standard white guy action dudes, but she can only do so much in a film that places relies almost entirely on her heroics to overlook the sloggy staging and dance around politics. I think that’s what makes G20 so frustrating; it has the chance to be something more and merely compromises on being more of the same with a different coat of paint.