Review: All aboard 'Mutiny' for an ocean of carnage and a puddle of originality

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

See more from the L.A.Times in Google Search.

Set us as preferred I’ve been wrestling with Jason Statham for a decade and I’m finally conceding defeat.At his best, he’s a superb screen star: a nimble rascal with a twinkle in his eye.

Yet he doesn’t respect his own strengths.For every great Statham movie — “Spy,” “Snatch,” “Crank” and its even better sequel — he makes three clunkers that task him merely to scowl and punch.

I used to think I was rooting on Statham’s side for better material.“Mutiny” convinced me that he’s content to be a dull brute.Director Jean-François Richet (“Plane”) helms this brawl-a-thon about a private bodyguard, Cole Reed (Statham), sneaking onto a boat to find out who assassinated his shipping-magnate boss Tibu (Ramon Tikaram).

Despite owning a mansion so vast that Cole runs laps around it for exercise and raising a spoiled adult son, Tibu was a mensch who even remembered Cole’s dead father’s birthday even though he never knew the guy.This saintly billionaire is too good to exist — and soon doesn’t.The cargo boat is embarking on a three-and-a-half week journey from Bangkok to California.

(Never fear, it’s routing across the Pacific, not through the Strait of Hormuz.) The captain (Roland Møller) and crew have a fishy amount of guns.Also onboard is a new third mate named Angie (Annabelle Wallis), a last-minute substitute with a bouncy ponytail, and my least favorite plot device, a crate of human trafficking victims.

Movies We’ve mapped out 27 of the best movie theaters in L.A., from the TCL Chinese and the New Beverly to the Alamo Drafthouse and which AMC reigns in Burbank.As per usual, Richet pans across the filthy, fearful faces of these kidnapped women and children, crossing his fingers that the audience will do the emotional work of investing in their well-being while never allowing them to s...