Hot take: I didn’t think Simon Kinberg did a total bad job directing X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Yes, the script and pacing was crap (which may not have all been his fault) but for a writer/producer-turned-first-time-director, he showed some surprisingly great chops behind the camera during the film’s action scenes. Well, Kinberg can now prove whether that was just beginner’s luck or not as he reteams with his Dark Phoenix actress Jessica Chastain for the upcoming ensemble spy thriller The 355.
Seemingly appearing out of nowhere as I certainly hadn’t heard of this movie before the trailer suddenly dropped last night, The 355 sees Chastain lead a damn impressive cast including Lupita Nyong’o, Diane Kruger, and Penelope Cruz. That’s two Oscar winners and one Oscar nominee for those of you keeping score at home. Co-written by Kinberg and Theresa Rebeck, the flick sees Chastain as a “wild card CIA agent” who assembles the other ladies, all playing employees of various intelligence agencies around the world, into the titular team to retrieve a top-secret weapon that has fallen into mercenary hands that may or may not belong to Bingbing Fan’s mysterious character. It’s like Charlie’s Angels but serious, yo. And it looks… alright. Check it out below.
I recently had the misfortune of watching Ava, another spy thriller starring Chastain which was about as generic and dull an example of the genre as there can be. Maybe the sour taste it left in my mouth is still lingering, but this isn’t doing enough for me to make me really stand up and take notice. Other than the appeal of the fantastic cast, that is, which also boasts Sebastian Stan and Edgar Ramirez. If anything, it will be the names on the poster that get me to watch this.
The 355 is scheduled for release on 15 January 2021. Here’s the official synopsis:
When a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands, wild card CIA agent Mason “Mace” Brown (Oscar®-nominated actress Jessica Chastain) will need to join forces with rival badass German agent Marie (Diane Kruger, In the Fade), former MI6 ally and cutting-edge computer specialist Khadijah (Oscar® winner Lupita Nyong’o), and skilled Colombian psychologist Graciela (Oscar® winner Penélope Cruz) on a lethal, breakneck mission to retrieve it, while also staying one-step ahead of a mysterious woman, Lin Mi Sheng (Fan Bingbing, X-Men: Days of Future Past), who is tracking their every move.
As the action rockets around the globe from the cafes of Paris to the markets of Morocco to the wealth and glamour of Shanghai, the quartet of women will forge a tenuous loyalty that could protect the world—or get them killed.
Last Updated: October 7, 2020
Insomnia is fun
October 7, 2020 at 10:40
It’s amazing what can be done if you think of an original idea instead of just a gender swap like with Oceans 11 or Ghostbusters. Can’t wait to see this.