'Dirty Angels' review: Thriller fires off violent action that's predictable but still powerful
Somewhere along the way between the filming of “Dirty Angels” in late 2022/early 2023 and this week's release date, they might have considered changing that title. It sounds like it could be a sequel to that “Angels with Filthy Souls” movie that plays on the TV in “Home Alone,” or perhaps the Dickensian story of a group of plucky orphans who team up on a big adventure circa 1840. They might be filthy and rough around the edges, but they’re “Dirty Angels.”
What we’re actually getting is a violent and punishingly effective thriller about an all-female commando unit posing as members of a relief organization in a daring mission to rescue a group of teenage girls who have been taken hostage by terrorists in Afghanistan. This is a film that doesn’t even try to sidestep the clichés of the genre; in fact, it runs toward familiar tropes and embraces them with vigor.
What elevates “Dirty Angels” to the status of a solid slice of R-rated action entertainment is the stellar cast led by Eva Green and the surehanded direction from 81-year-old veteran Martin Campbell, director of the Bond films “GoldenEye” and “Casino Royale” (which co-starred Green as Vesper Lynd) and most recently, the Liam Neeson-starring “Memory.” Filmed in Morocco and at the Nu Boyana Hellenic Film Studios in Thessaloniki, Greece, “Dirty Angels” breaks not an inch of new ground, but packs a visceral punch. If you like movies where any trip to the bathroom could mean you’re going to miss a scene where things go BOOM, strap in for “Dirty Angels.”
In a brutal and blood-spattered pre-opening credits prologue set in Afghanistan in 2021, Eva Green’s Jake, an Army Ranger, barely survives but sees most of her squad wiped out. We then fast forward to present-day and the Quetta International Girl’s High School in Afghanistan, where terrorists storm the gates and commit heinous acts of murder before kidnapping some 50 students, including May Kurtz’s Badia, the daughter of the former Afghan minister of education.
Meanwhile, at the Fort Irwin Army Base in California, we find that Jake is still consumed with rage and pain over the events from three years ago, as evidenced by the obligatory sparring sequence in which Jake goes ballistic, even kicking her opponent when the match is over and he’s on the ground. When Jake’s colleague Travis shows her a photo of the kidnapped girls and offers her the chance to lead a rescue mission, Jake has little interest — until she learns the mastermind behind the kidnappings is Amir (George Iskander), the same man who executed her team in cold blood.
Game on. The plan, which seems half-baked at best, will entail Jake and a group of battle-hardened operatives posing as members of a relief organization, because any such group that isn’t heavily populated by women won’t pass the plausibility test. (This is also a wild leap of fiction, as there are laws that prohibit relief organizations from participating in military operations. Even POSING as humanitarian workers would seem terribly ill-advised.) Jake is assigned the identity of a French Canadian relief worker named Jessica Rabitt, and while it’s pronounced “Ruh-BEET,” yes, we get a smattering of jokes about that moniker.
Once Jake arrives at a safe house in Pakistan, we’re introduced to the rest of the team, with Jake saying there’s no need to learn their real names because it’s not like they’re going to become best pals. Ruby Rose is Medic, Jojo T. Gibbs is Geek, Emily Bruni is Shooter and Maria Bakalova is the Bomb, so you can kind of guess their respective specialties. Travis will also join the mission, as will Edmund Kingsley’s dashing Dr. Mike, who is a real doctor and will help provide cover.
Every step of the way, “Dirty Angels” brings in familiar types, e.g., a young driver named Malik (Reza Brojerdi) who is bubbling with personality and tries to bond with the stoic Jake over classic rock. (“You like the Doors? Steppenwolf?”) At times the plot becomes so tangled it’s a bit hard to follow, but all we really have to know is some really bad people have kidnapped these girls, and it’s all going to end in a horrifying manner if Jake and the squad don’t come through, and guns will be blazing and cars will be exploding and helicopters will be helicopter-ing every inch of the way.
“Dirty Angels” drops in a bit of political messaging, as when one character says, “No one in the world seems to notice there’s a civil war here,” but then it’s time to get back to the action and the chaos. As one Dirty Angels says to another in the thick of things, “Get them home.”
Good plan.