Buddy cop movie The Wrecking Crew is made for viewing while scrolling on phones

The Wrecking Crew (M18)

124 minutes, Prime Video
★★☆☆☆

The story: Cop Jonny (Jason Momoa) left Hawaii years ago, but after yakuza gangsters attack him at home in Oklahoma, he suspects his estranged father – a private detective recently killed in a traffic incident – might have been caught up in a conspiracy. Jonny returns to the islands to attend his dad’s funeral, where he meets his half-brother James (Dave Bautista), a special operations soldier who gives Jonny a chilly reception. But when danger arises, the pair put their talents to work dismantling a scheme that puts the homes of native Hawaiians in danger.

Media experts have noticed the rise of the algorithmic movie, content produced by streaming services for two-screen users who watch while scrolling on phones.

Directed by Puerto Rican film-maker Angel Manuel Soto (Blue Beetle, 2023), The Wrecking Crew could not be more cookie-cutter if it tried.

Jonny and James speak the plot out loud, frequently; there is an intense action scene every 15 minutes, during which generic drum-heavy music from a stock library plays; one hero is a loose-cannon cop and the other a super soldier; and the villains are faceless gongfu Asians who arrive in platoons but, for some reason, attack singly and get swatted away like flies.

Momoa and Bautista are the names that will make subscribers click on this buddy-cop flick, in the hope they will linger long enough to find that it is good enough to watch with Instagram or e-mail open, much like Netflix’s The Gray Man (2022), 6 Underground (2019) or a dozen other action thrillers made for streaming.

The stars are also The Wrecking Crew’s producers. It helps explain why the whole affair is so dull – when actors are in charge of the story, they like their characters to look good.

Momoa’s acerbic Jonny is free to insult others for being fat, but is never the butt of jokes, either physical or verbal. Bautista’s James is a family man, with all the lazy cliches that the role implies. As is typical, the bar for relatability and likeability has been set low.

Big dumb buddy action movies are meant to be guilty pleasures, but this project never gets silly or self-aware enough to earn the description.

The duo never mess up or come up with harebrained escape ideas. They are never the underdogs in any situation. Despite gore and violence – note the M18 rating – the action occurs without suspense because these two are never in any real danger.

On the plus side, Momoa and Bautista work well together as the bickering half-brothers, delivering low-key performances calibrated to fit the shallow material. Filipino-American actor and Spider-Man (2017 to present) star Jacob Batalon as Pika, the dead father’s assistant, is in fine form as the comedic sidekick, delivering some much-needed levity.

Hot take: Not trashy enough to be a guilty pleasure and generic even by the standards of algorithmic content made for streaming, The Wrecking Crew will be forgotten minutes after viewing.