Review by C.J. Bunce
It was a long time ago, but not really. In the era of TBS’s “Movies for Guys Who Like Movies,” the star role was filled by Chuck Norris or Jean-Claude Van Damme. Late at night you could power down and get an action fix of the B-movie variety. But those movies never starred women. So it’s refreshing for a movie like Trigger Warning to come along. It stars Jessica Alba, who, if she had a better agent, would be competing with Charlize Theron and Alicia Vikander for big-budget action starring roles. Alba proved in her L.A.’s Finest series she can do the action star bit in spades, and she easily turns in a performance much better than the thin script. In lots of ways Trigger Warning feels like an adaptation of the Walking Tall remake, which starred Dwayne Johnson and Johnny Knoxville. That movie is better, but if you’re looking for something in the same vein, this movie will probably satisfy you.
Walking Tall was in a long line of movies, basically modern Westerns, featuring a late-career soldier or officer type, returning to their roots, to their hometown, and righting some long overdue wrongs with a little vengeance. They all go back to John Wayne in the actual Western The Sons of Katie Elder, where Wayne returned home after his mother’s death to find all wasn’t right back home. Walking Tall had Dwayne Johnson’s character heading back home, finding he was needed, needed to put right a town overrun by a crooked sheriff and small-time mobster. Sylvester Stallone turned in an earlier, impressive performance as a cop trying to flesh out bad cops in Cop Land (and something lesser but similar in Rambo: Last Blood), and in another similar performance (but with less accolades) Arnold Schwarzenegger returned from an early retirement to play an over-the-hill lawman in The Last Stand. Arguably a similar character can be found played by Chris Cooper in Lone Star and Kevin Costner in The Highwaymen–without the punches and kicks.
In Trigger Warning Jessica Alba plays Parker, a top special ops soldier who returns home for her father’s funeral, only to find he may have been murdered. This isn’t the “old man” role of the above movies per se, but Alba’s character isn’t some newbie at the beginning of her career either. She has the muscle, she has the moves, she has the experience to take out anyone who gets in her way, maybe not martial arts Bruce Lee style, but her size and speed make her as big a threat as the characters played by the rough and tough actors listed above. At times some of the cave scenes prove she’s also the perfect candidate to play Lara Croft in a Tomb Raider movie.
In her grief Parker quickly rekindles something with her old boyfriend, now sheriff Jesse, played by Mark Webber. Jesse’s dad Ezekiel basically runs the town, a religious conservative type running guns from the local fed arms munitions site, which he sells to terrorists. He’s played by Anthony Michael Hall in one of his strangest, and briefest, roles. After Parker starts getting too nosy, she enlists her soldier pal Spider, played by Tone Bell, to come to provide some back-up. The bad guys try to stop Parker, but she opens up more than a few cans of whoopass on them, and it’s believable, slick choreography that beats the explosions and other visual effects scenes.
The only thing missing is Walking Tall and The Last Stand’s goofy sidekick played by Johnny Knoxville, but filling that role here is Night Agent star Gabriel Basso. Basso isn’t remotely as silly as Knoxville, but he turns in a reserved version, as Parker’s lifelong friend Mikey. Stephanie Jones plays Mikey’s mom, providing that family the star needed to protect like we saw in Walking Tall.
For the best of Alba, revisit L.A.’s Finest. Here Trigger Warning is just a catchy name–Alba is more impressive with her hands and a knife than the limited gun scenes.
It’s just like the other direct-to-Netflix movies, and also better. No, it doesn’t star Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, or Gal Gadot, but it’s better than something like the disappointing Red Notice in delivering everything it promises in its marketing and trailer, which isn’t that much. Trigger Warning delivers exactly what you expect for a direct-to-Netflix flick. Catch it late night like you would revisit an old action B-movie back in the 20th century. Trigger Warning is now streaming on Netflix.
