Despite their rise to A-list stardom in similar genre efforts, particularly the superhero worlds of the Marvel Cinematic and DC Extended Universes, it’s something of a surprise that Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista went so long without working together. Their grizzled-yet-humorous personas combined with their shared desire to experiment with non-action projects on the likes of Apple TV’s Chief of War and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films made the idea of a collaboration between them all the more enticing.
The Wrecking Crew has finally put Momoa and Bautista on screen together and, thankfully, it largely lives up to the potential of the acting duo. It’s certainly not the most original, and its script does come with a number of problems, but without its blockbuster duo leading the charge, it would’ve been on the lower end of chances to stand out from the crowd as an entertaining ride.
The Wrecking Crew Only Somewhat Overcomes Its Familiarity & Routine Script
Produced by the pair, The Wrecking Crew sees Momoa and Bautista star as Jonny and James Hale, half-brothers who have never gotten along since their private detective father left the latter’s mother for the former’s. Jonny now works as a rule-bending police detective on a Native American reservation in Oklahoma, while James is a Navy SEAL living on their home island of Hawaii and training new members of the military, while also having a family of two kids and a loving wife.
The pair suddenly find themselves forced to come back together when their father is killed in an apparent hit-and-run, which Jonny immediately becomes suspicious of after yakuza members attack him in his home. Reluctantly working together to determine the truth behind his death, the siblings quickly find themselves wrapped up in a larger conspiracy that puts them in the crosshairs of more than just the Japanese crime organization.
As far as buddy cop stories go, The Wrecking Crew certainly doesn’t strive to be that different from its genre predecessors. The death of a family member and their very different lifestyles — Jonny being reckless while James is a much more organized individual — creates a typical odd couple dynamic that audiences come to expect.
In some ways, the familiarity is a comfort for getting immersed in the Hale brothers’ investigation into their father’s death. Banshee and Warrior creator Jonathan Tropper nicely balances the pair squabbling with one another and some effective playing off of each other to keep those around them guessing. One of the best examples is a beat between the brothers and Claes Bang’s villainous Marcus Robichaux, in which Momoa and Bautista feel like they’re testing each other’s patience as much as the antagonist’s.
But even while they’re clearly having fun with one another, the script never really finds a way to go deeper with the Hale brothers. Even as the film starts to explore the root of their animosity with each other, The Wrecking Crew too often only skims the surface of the emotional baggage the pair have, or rushes them with a few lines of dialogue. Considering the movie clocks in at just shy of two hours long, and has various bits poking fun at said baggage, it would have been nice to see Tropper actually try and give both characters some further explorations.
This lack of depth also speaks to the fact that The Wrecking Crew can never quite decide how far to go with its central mystery and its impact beyond the Hale brothers. Robichaux has moments of appearing to almost be a prisoner in and of himself with the criminal organizations he’s affiliated with, while his big plan seems primed to touch on the threat of gentrification on smaller Hawaiian communities, even on the community-driven island.
And yet, Tropper ends up trying to juggle too much with The Wrecking Crew‘s ideas by keeping it firmly planted in its buddy cop formula and tone. This could have been easier to overlook had the film been funnier, as there are a handful of true laughs to be had with the proceedings, but the rest of the comedy registers little more than a chuckle at the best. The biggest area where the comedy fails to land is just how old the jokes feel, as Jonny’s frequent fat jokes directed at Jacob Batalon’s Pika and mixing up Morena Baccarin’s Valentina being Mexican instead of Brazilian fall on the wrong side of throwback humor.
Where the humor does sometimes underwhelm, The Wrecking Crew is at least also supported by Ángel Manuel Soto’s energetic direction. The Blue Beetle director continues to prove himself a fantastic filmmaker for the action genre, with every fight scene beautifully mixing the sensibilities of the thoroughly choreographed John Wick films with that of the messier, comedy-driven Jackie Chan classics. They also nicely take advantage of the movie’s R-rating to make every action scene feel appropriately brutal.
One Wrecking Crew action scene that ultimately left this reviewer divided is a hallway fight between James and a variety of yakuza thugs in the film’s climax. Soto was clearly directly inspired by Oldboy‘s iconic hallway scene in shooting everything from an outside perspective and letting the majority of the action play out from this third-person view.
In some ways, it’s not entirely a bad thing that Soto homaged the Park Chan-wook genre classic with this final act fight scene, as he executes it very well, and Bautista and the other stunt performers sell the sequence magnificently. But all the same, it would be nice if action directors didn’t go to the same well every single time they want to depict a hallway-set fight sequence, as the likes of certain John Wick installments and Punisher’s iconic prison scene in Daredevil season 2 show how to do more than just ape director Park’s.
But, all the same, the combination of Soto’s slick direction and nice chemistry between Bautista and Momoa ultimately keep The Wrecking Crew mostly afloat. It’s great to see the Guardians of the Galaxy alum play a more reserved character, yet still find the humor in such a part, while Bautista cutting loose is always a blast. Plus, while the Prime Video sequel largely wraps things up for the Hale brothers, there’s just enough wiggle room for a potential follow-up to learn from some of the first movie’s missteps and improve upon the solid foundation.
The Wrecking Crew begins streaming on Prime Video on January 28.
- Release Date
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January 28, 2026
- Director
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Ángel Manuel Soto
- Writers
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Jonathan Tropper
- Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista are a fantastic duo with plenty of chemistry.
- Ángel Manuel Soto infuses a wonderful sense of energy into his direction.
- The action is well-crafted and largely entertaining.
- The script doesn’t go deep enough with its characters or cultural representations.
- The reliance on fat jokes and profanity feels oddly old-fashioned in all the wrong ways.